Everything Counts

12 miles easy on what's becoming our Monday route with Albert, Ben, and Jon. I think it was the coldest morning yet, but when dressed properly it's not bad at all.

AEROBIC BUILDER: PROGRESSION

We had a decent crew for a cold builder this morning. It had snowed lightly up until right when we started. My goal this morning was to do 8 miles progressing from 5:25 to 4:57 dropping four seconds per mile.

Things went according to plan for the most part. The pedestrian bridge in mile five was snowy and slick so I slowed way down there. The last two miles were tough but felt good mentally to be hitting those splits.

Splits: 5:26, 5:20, 5:16, 5:10, 5:24 (5:09 besides slowing on bridge), 5:05, 5:01, 4:57

I really needed a solid run like this to restore my fragile confidence after last week's sub-par workouts.

4.3 more easy miles at lunch with Dave.

10.1 miles on the Riverdale Parkway with Bret, Albert, and Dave. The pace was very easy, but I was still very sluggish from yesterday's builder.

1,000 METER REPS

I met Jon, Albert, and Jason at the pond and warmed up 3.25 miles together to include strides. Then we got into our workouts, with basically everyone doing something different. Jon did 400s, Albert did a 5-mile tempo, and Jason and I did 1000s.

My goal was to average 3:02-3:03 pace or basically 4:52 pace for ten reps. I ran them around the pond which is just over a mile long. So not all reps are equal. The backside of the pond loop is ever so slightly uphill and into a slight headwind, while the front side has opposite conditions. So some reps were almost all in good or bad conditions and some were about half and half. But the effort was basically the same for the reps except I picked the last one up a bit. Rest was 75 seconds.

Splits: 3:03.7 2:59.7 3:02.1 2:59.7 2:57.3 3:02.7 2:58.5 2:59.0 3:02.3 and 2:50.8 for a 2:59.5 avg or 4:48-4:49 pace.

I am really happy with the workout and not just the pace. The pace was good, but it's been awhile since I felt this good hitting a workout. I felt I could've held pace for 15 reps. Hopefully this bodes well for Big Sur.

10.1 miles easy on the trails from Rainbow Gardens with Ken, Dave, Bret, Steve, and Albert. The temps were awesome at 48 degrees. Hello shorts and t-shirt weather, I didn't think I'd see you in the morning again until 2014!

15.1 miles with Steve, Dave, Ben, and Ken from Steve's house in Hooper. We threw in a three-mile tempo in the middle. I ran 14:42. After we put down two gallons of chocolate milk in no time. And Steve was kind enough to make us breakfast burritos. Awesome morning. Thanks again Steve.