I was looking forward to today’s workout, which is hilarious considering it was intervals, but after you do a couple workouts of 1000s and 1200s, 8 w/5x600s and 90sec. recoveries sounds just about fun.

Then I wake up this morning thinking it might not be such a great workout after all.  I didn’t sleep well and yesterday my quads had a little DOMs after  Sunday’s sauna run, which I still felt when I woke up.  Add to that, I checked my resting HR upon waking and it was a bit higher than usual, mid-50s.  Not that I pay a huge amount of attention to it, I don’t do low HR training, but it is a possible sign of overworking, though probably just lack of sleep.

All these nit-picks aside, the weather today was totally in my favor – 65 with 49% humidity and overcast.  Heaven.

So I start this shindig really slow, 4 warmup miles around 9:30 avg. and I wonder as I’m running, how I’m going to infuse myself with enough energy for intervals.  I’m perfectly happy plodding along and the thought of going fast sounds as fun as pushing boulders, at this point.  I wonder on the third mile if I should do a couple strides beforehand to get myself moving, but seriously, I’m too lazy.  I figure, whatever, I’ll just do this.

As usual, if you’ve been following, my interval goal pace is 7:15s (goal 5K pace converted off my goal marathon time of 3:40).  So the first one starts, I make a point not to check my Garmin till half-way, because, without fail, I always start too fast on the first one, then see the number, get shocked, pull back, then go too slow, then have to speed up to get normal again.  It’s silly.  Today, I’m just going to do them and whatever happens, happens.

So the first one ends, hmmm…7:10.  Good, a tad bit too fast, but reasonable.  The second one, 7:10 again.  Uh, ok.  Third…7:01.  This is weird.  Ordinarily, I’d be all, “oh no, way too fast, I’m going to die on the others, must…hold…back.”.  Today, I’m like, “cool, lets see what else”.  Fourth comes…7:03.  Wow, this is going well.  Then one more to finish off the set…7:07.

Avg pace – 7:06, the fastest set of intervals I’ve ever run!  And as for the make-sure-you-didn’t-do-them-too-fast test of “could you do another at that speed?”, I’d say, why yes, I sure could of!  And that leaves me feeling downright jubilant, because I’m not so far off from being in a new “minute”, as I refer to it.

See, I visualize my progress as a huge clock face.  My paces for the past few months leave me restful in the 10s, comfortably situated in the 9s, visiting the 8s quite a bit, and when I’m frisky, I’ll hang out with my racier pals, the 7s.  So to think I may be hanging with the devil-may-care 6s before too long is wild!

But enough future flight of fancies, back to the rest of this week.  I’ve got 11 easy tomorrow with a trip up and down smile hill.  Then 4 recovery, a day off, and 4 w/strides.  Then Sunday, it’s the Philadelphia Distance Run!! And now, because I’m shameless, reckless and somewhat stupid, I’ll announce my goals here for all to see: I’d be cool with 1:46:something, very happy with 1:45:something and thrilled with 1:44:something.

We shall see…

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