75 degrees and 83% humidity when I left the house at 6:30.  What a bowl of soup.

Today’s adventure was 9 miles w/5×1000 at 5K race pace w 2 min rest between.  During the 3 mile warmup I saw my friend Joe out running, so that was a cheery start to the morning.  Along with my pal sighting, there was a huge pack of army kids dressed up in full camouflage regalia; longsleeve jackets, pants, boots, heavy gear on their backs, doing some running and walking on the bike path, so that quelled any complaining I might have done.

My goal for today’s intervals was the same one I’m using throughout this cycle, 7:15 5K pace, based off goal marathon pace.  Last week, my initial interval was sluggish, and though I caught up after that, today I aimed to be even-steven throughout.

Now, the problem with me is my big fat stupid ego.  A faster runner, or one with more experience, would have either done less intervals or done them slower to account for the weather.  I know this because I’m always reading speedy runner’s accounts on the Marathon Training Forum and it is the common advice.  But when you’re at my level (which I know a bunch of you are), you figure you gotta do the workout as-is or you’ll hate yourself, feel like a loser and be ashamed to write about it on your blog.

So I did the workout as planned (7:12,7:13,7:12,7:14,7:14…avg.7:13) though the test of V02max is “could you do another one when you’re done?”  If you’re doing them right, you’re supposed to have enough left in the tank for one more.  I suppose if someone threatened to stick bamboo shoots in my fingernails and a steel spike up my ass, I could have come up with one more, but otherwise, foggedaboutit, I was cooked.

But I feel good about it, it’s done and now I can revert to my slothful ways for the rest of the day.  What’s next?  Supposed to be off tomorrow then 5 recovery on Saturday, but it looks like there’ll be some tail-end hurricane action Saturday (rain and 27 mph winds), so I think I’ll do the recovery tomorrow to get it out of the way.

And on that exciting tidbit of future ponderings, I have a bowl of cereal here that needs attacking, must go in the for the kill now, so I’ll see you later, folks!

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