First Speed Workout Since the Half Marathon

FIRST: INTERVALS LAST FRIDAY:

Fridays are the days for speed when my legs are feeling good. ("Good" meaning "not worried about injuries.") Last Friday (Christmas Eve) was about 4 weeks since the Moustache Run Half Marathon, so it was time for some hard running.

I checked out the St. Thomas track, and it was still snow covered. So I went out for my favorite no-need-for-a-track interval workout: 2x2 mile intervals along the Mississippi River.

I did this workout before the half marathon (in 11:43 and 11:48), and I did it in early September as one of only 2 interval workouts leading up to the TC 10 Mile (in 12:09 and 11:59) after kind of taking it easier all summer because of some heel pain. It was also my first outdoor speed workout of 2021 back in March (with splits of 11:53 and 11:53). I also did it on the treadmill in late January as it's a pretty easy speed workout to do inside (with splits of 11:50 and 11:24).

I'm not really training for anything specific now, so I was just out to feel some effort. I was happy with my first half mile split of 2:56, and then I was pretty happy with keeping them all under 3:00 for the first 2 miles:

2:56, 2:59, 2:55, 2:57 = 11:48.73

I didn't know what #2 would hold (I really NEVER do) as I hit that 2nd mile of the 1st interval relatively hard. My first half mile of my 2nd interval was 2:54, but that was my fastest split for those 2 miles - the fact that my last half mile of the workout was my 2nd-to-slowest split shows I was hurting a little:

2:54, 3:01, 2:55, 2:59 = 11:51.98

Nothing fancy, but just a good hard effort. And seemingly more proof that running outside is harder than the treadmill (which is OBVIOUS and WELL KNOWN, but I always seem to forget that after lots of treadmill running).

SECOND: TRYING A HARDER LONG RUN:

I noted in this post 8 days ago that my long run about 2 weeks ago "felt almost easy" in the middle harder miles. I did the same long run last week as I didn't want to overdo anything as I was going to do a speed workout that Friday (see above). But then yesterday (my first run since the speed workout), I tried to up the pace a little for my long run.

Oh, and it was back indoors because we had a mini blizzard with a coating of freezing rain on it the night before. Here was my view of 3 snowplows going down University Ave the night before at 10:30 pm:

I like running in the cold, but not on slick surfaces.

I started my "6 harder pace miles" just a little faster (9.0 mph instead of 8.9 mph), and then I sped up quicker as well (instead of waiting until every half mile [like 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, etc], I'd bump up the speed 0.2 miles sooner). That would just make those pace miles a BIT faster, but nothing too drastic.

Well, maybe it was the speed workout 3 days before, maybe it was the spin workout I had the day before (instead of 2 days before like normal), or maybe it was eating a ton of Christmas garbage 2 days before, but the workout wasn't going to last. I got through 5 harder miles (instead of 6) and then slowed up. It wasn't a wasted workout by any means, just not quite what I had hoped. Those 5 miles were still just BARELY faster than the 6 miles the week before (6:20.4 / mile average for the 5 miles vs. 6:21.1 / mile for the 6 miles). Here's a selfie during the warm-up miles that I sent my wife when she texted:

And then our new kitten curled up on my lap as I did some class prep.

Over the last 4+ weeks, my long runs looked like this: half marathon, 10 miles, 11 miles, 11.1 miles, and now 10.4 miles yesterday. Decent totals for nothing specific on the horizon.