First Outdoor Speed Work of the Year!

Friday was my speed day. It had dropped below freezing, but we had enough heat (and rain) over the few previous days that I knew the trails would be pretty clear - I didn't want to run on ice.

I looked back over my last few speed workouts, and this is what I found starting in the new year through a few weeks ago: an all out V02 max run, 2x2 mile intervals, a 5K time trial, and 3x1 mile intervals. (All of those were on the treadmill.) I figured a good first outdoor speed workout would be 2x2 mile intervals.

I forgot at the time, but this was also the LAST workout I did before it got too cold and icy late last November when I took my running inside. That time, I ran it with Charlie in the stroller as we were distance learning. Coming off my TC 10 Mile training from the month before, I ran nice fast splits with the stroller: 11:59 and 11:49! I'm glad I forgot to look back at that workout before this one, because I would have been disappointed with the splits rolling in last week. But I have to remember that the stroller workout was coming off a solid summer/fall of running, and now I'm just starting to get back outside. So I need to re-learn ACTUAL fast running. (Very different than treadmill fast running.)

So I hit the river for my usual course for this workout:

Each interval started near the middle, ran NW for a mile, and ran back.
(The splits labeled on the map are each 1/2 mile.)


My pace.


In case you're blind, here's my pace with the 2 intervals highlighted. ;)

Here's what I ran:

2x2 mile intervals by the river! 28 degrees and pretty calm.

Warm up: 3:34, 3:36, 1:58 (0.25 mile)
Walking rest: 2:52 (0.15 mile)

INTERVAL #1: 3:01, 3:01, 2:56, 2:53 = 11:53.08
Walking rest: 2:54 (0.14 mile)

INTERVAL #2: 2:57, 3:02, 2:56, 2:58 = 11:53.94
Walking rest: 2:36 (0.13 mile)

Cool down: 4:01, 3:44, 0:58 (0.11 mile)

That first interval felt hard, but not horrible. As I was coming up on my first half mile split, I thought "I hope it's under 3:03, and I think it should be around 3:01," and I had nailed that. I had hoped to speed up more, but I could only muster that 11:53.

And interval #2 felt TOTALLY sporadic. "Will this next split be 2:50? Or 3:10? Who knows?!?" I was pretty trashed, and it was a good workout. Ending with a split that had 4 splits faster than it shows I was beat up. It's also rare that I run my fastest split in the first interval, and my slowest in the second.

So my stroller running average from last year was 11:54.
My treadmill average from a few weeks ago was 11:37 (fake speed).
And my outdoor average from last week was 11:53.

Gotta work those numbers back down!

Here's my last post about my first outdoor ride of the year if you missed it.