Last "Hard" Workout Before Racing

Tomorrow is "Goldy's Run 10 Mile" race. It's not an "A" race for me, but I'm still planning on racing hard.

Tuesday was my last hard effort in a workout. I ran my favorite "endurance-based" interval workout (that I wrote a lot about here): 2 x 2 mile intervals. I ran from work, so after 1.8 mile warm up, I ran OUT and BACK along this L-shaped route along the edge of Como Park:

Starting lower-right, running to upper-left, and then back.


This close-up shows all the walking before, in between, and after the intervals.

The intervals started with a slow uphill for about 0.3, then downhill for about 0.2, then flat-ish with a little up and down to the turn-around. (Then back.) No BIG hills, but just over 40 feet change in elevation from the start to about 0.3 into the interval.

Here were my half-mile splits for these 2x2 mile intervals:

2:56, 3:00, 2:56, 2:49 = 11:42.06
2:59, 2:53, 3:02, 2:49 = 11:46.20

I was quite happy with my first interval: I was happy that first uphill 0.5 miles was sub-3:00! The second interval was brutal to start, and I just tried to keep it fast to the turn-around (note the 2:53 split). Then I was dead and just worked my way back.

Pace: warm-up, walk for 3:00, 2 intervals with 3:00 walking between, then easy run back.

It's supposed to be around 54 degrees and drizzling for tomorrow's race. Hopefully JUST warm enough and JUST light enough of a sprinkle to all be OK. Back with a race report soon!