Working out

Yesterday I did a 2 x 2 mile workout at Riverview by myself. It was 24 degrees outside, without much wind. It was probably cooler than that by the water. I tried to take my hat off after the first 2 mile, but had to put it back on about a minute into the second one. It was just that cold.

I'm used to doing these two mile repeats on the track at 4am with Justin trailing behind me. Last spring I feel like they were pretty easy to do. I looked it up and I had one in early March that were both around 11:18. I'm sure it was easy but I'm also sure it was cold. Doing it on the track is nice because it's flat and you get into a rhythm and just click off the splits. Riverview is nice and flat, but it's still not exactly a track surface.

I knew I was going to start out slow. I wore my GPS, as usual, but didn't have anything programmed in. Early in, I looked and it said I was running 6:20 pace. So I knew I needed to pick it up. I looked again later and it was somewhere in the 5:40's, not sure. I felt that was better. But I was still a little disappointed to hit the first mile in 6:01. But it was the first mile and I didn't worry about it. The second half on the way out is always a lot easier to run. It's flatter and has less navigation. Both miles had a jump in them-- ice and a downed tree. I got to the second mile in 5:49. I was satisfied. Jogging around the field at the end of the path, I felt like it might be warmer, but it was just the deceptive sunlight on my black clothing. It was still cold.

I got to it on the 2nd one, but didn't look at my watch at all until the mile. I was hoping to see some company around there (Mark was on his bike, Seth was doing 800s, and Thomas was running miles with Melissa,) but no one was there yet. The first mile was 5:42. Good! But now I'm at the harder part, and my body is getting tired. Ugh. I passed Seth and Thomas with a little less than a half-mile to go, and Mark was close behind on the bike. I thought that I heard him turn the bike around to follow me, so I'll admit that I picked it up. Towards the end I was pushing, but then shut it down a little bit at the end of the park. I still ended up running a 5:36. And I'm celebrating that!

So this was the kind of workouts I need to be doing. Any time the team is at the track, I'm just going to get back to my basics and do this stuff. My foot didn't hurt at all during the workout, but then walking from the car to the door of my apartment building, it was aggravated. I might just have to get over it and stop being a wimp. I'm going to run 4-5 miles today after class ends, and tomorrow I'm meeting Graham to do a long run in Louisa. Relentless forward progress.