What an interesting speed session. Actually, both last week’s and this week’s were eye-opening, in that both sessions were at goal race pace, a pace that in the past I would inexplicably avoid acquainting myself with until the actual race. I’d do some stuff slower and some faster, but never right on. Stupid, huh?

I have seen the light though, and today’s 5×600 at goal pace w/90sec recoveries was useful in it’s attempt to keep me evenly paced and at a contained speed. I gotta say, I really suck at gauging pace and need to work on it. So my lastest plan is to run a “throwaway” 5K after Broad St’s over, and run it without my Garmin (Oh My God!), just to see how my inner clock handles it. Just like a real runner!!

Back to the present, things are looking pretty good for Saturday’s race (though I no longer take anything for granted). Today’s workout was the same one I did before my last 5K on March 11th and the difference in effort was night and day.

It cracks me up when I look back at my logs and read the derision I used to attach to interval sessions, even in this blog I bitched and moaned about it, but now that I’m used to them and understand you don’t have to spill your blood and guts to improve, it’s a different ballgame.

I think the main thing for me was realizing that if your interval times aren’t what they “should” be (thanks to some goal you’ve put in your head), lose the ego and do them slower till you find the sweet spot. Once you find that, it’s only a matter of time till the goal paces you were dreaming of start peeking out and making themselves known.

Of course, it remains to be seen how these sessions will translate race-wise, but if anything, I’ve done some meaningful preparation these past few weeks, which is infinitely better than my former prerace prep: a few tempo runs and then swinging by the seat of my pants.

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