That Damn Zeal

This morning began in a blur, and it lasted well into my run.  Somehow I missed the turnoff for the Roosevelt track at Crittenden St and didn't realize it for a good mile or so.  Back tracked for what turned out to be 15 minutes out of my way and loosened up with some strides on the grass. While I had intended to do 4x1600, I was already 40 minutes deep and the kids were showing up already so I settled for 3.

90 seconds.  That was my mental benchmark as I had done this workout a couple weeks ago and averaged 92-93 seconds per lap.  Figured if these miles were worth anything that I would have at least improved by a couple seconds.  If I could average 6-minute repeats, I'd be happy.

With the typical zeal I bring into these workouts, the first lap blew by in 82 seconds.  I focused on relaxing and the remaining laps came in around 90 seconds, first repeat 5:51.  Three weeks ago I hit a 5:50 in the first mile of a 3 x mile workout and the rest of the run was a disaster.  I knew it would be tough to bring things under control today.

Surprisingly, I still had pep on the first lap of the second repeat, and I relaxed a bit but the first lap still passed in 85 seconds.  Second repeat, 5:56.  OK, this is a downhill slide now for sure.

I started the last repeat tired, and with heavy legs I knew it would be hard to hit sub-6.  3rd lap time was 4:34 or so and I thought for sure there was no way I'd come close to the first two laps.  With 200m to go, I mentally let go of the oxygen debt and cruised in as fast as I could while still under control.  5:58.  84-second last lap?  Not bad.

Probably not the smartest workout, but I realized my mistake and dug myself out of a hole without incurring too much damage in terms of lost time.  Pretty thrilled at my ability to bounce back today.  I would aim to hit 5:56-57 laps next time I do this, which is probably the fastest I've ever done these things.  Awesome.  Calling it 10 miles, 1:14ish door-to-door.