Repeat Workout

Last night I had a repeat workout. This is how is was laid out in the schedule:

10 minutes warmup
3 lower loops of Central Park
Increase speed by 30-40 seconds for each loop

Each lower loop of Central Park is 1.7 miles. It was sort of muggy last night, so of course that made it harder. I am assuming that the point of this workout was to work on saving your energy at the beginning so that you could have more at the end. A perfect workout for me, because this is one of my problem areas. I told Bill that my goal was a 9:45 pace for the first loop, a 9:15 pace for the second loop and a 8:45 pace for the third loop. He thought we would be dying if we did this. After I thought about it I thought that he might be right. But I wasn't sure. So I said that we would just play it by ear.

We started by walking across town to the park. As soon as we got to the park we ran downtown to 72nd street where our workout began. Right on schedule, we logged a 10 minute mile. It's funny though, because I felt like we were running a good pace. Our first loop was a 15:40. I was dripping with sweat and dying. Bill calculated that this was around a 9:17 pace. (Pretty close. But good math in your head Bill, especially after a hot run. It is actually a 9:12). Hmmm. 9:17 seemed a lot faster than what I was supposed to start out at.

I told Bill that this meant that our next loop had to be a 15:10. He said that he thought that we should just try to meet our time again, since we were so off the pace we set for ourselves. I said it depended on how I was feeling.

I must have been feeling good because my second loop was 14:48. Granted, I did feel like I was dying at the end and my heart was beating in my head like none other. (That was an 8:48 pace).

I was really feeling tired, and I felt like I screwed up my workout by not really taking the first loop easy. I realized that if I counted my warmup that my paces were pretty much on track. After all, this wasn't speed work. I told Bill that I was going to take the last loop easy and count it as my cooldown.

So my last loop was 15:50 (a 9:18 pace). I think this workout was good for me. Especially since I am trying to figure out my "normal" pace. I am also looking forward to see how I pace this weekend when we have an "easy" 12-14 mile run. (I think...we haven't gotten the coach's email yet).

Ever since I decided to change my mindset to be more competitive these workouts are killing me. Not in a bad way (not like my legs hurt or anything) just that the effort I put forward is so much greater. I am trying to becareful about not burning out though.