First Outside Run All Year: 2x2 Mile Intervals!

Friday I FINALLY hit the paved trail along River Road for the first time since CHRISTMAS EVE. Yep, it had been exactly 10 weeks since my last run outside. And I didn't realize it at the time, but it was the same 2x2 mile workout that I did 10 weeks ago as well.

I dropped the boys off at school, and then I checked out River Road in my car to make sure it wasn't too slick. (I LOVE running in the cold, but my knees get screwed up if I try to run on slick surfaces.)

My turkey buddies were out! (Around the 0.5 and 1.5 mile marker of my 2 mile intervals.)


No ice! (This is around where I start and end each interval.)


Lots of salt stains meaning there recently WAS ice, but it melted over 2 days in the upper 30s.


This would be my first outdoor run in my new Garmin! I set my watch face to this.
(May swap lap and elapsed time because I usually want to see my lap time bigger.)

Quick side note: we haven't had good "melts" all winter. We haven't had a ton of snow, but we haven't gotten those days where the sidewalks really clear up because it gets warm for a while. And then Saturday (the day after my intervals) we had some rain:

Icy sleet in there too! Lots of lightning as well!


Sunday morning, we woke up to 3-4 inches of snow.


Walking into school on Sunday to do some grading.


The view out the back steps on Sunday morning.


Saturday night vs. Sunday morning.

Hopefully we get some melting soon, but now I might be back on the treadmill for a bit.

Anyway... on to the workout...

After a 1+ mile warm-up, I walked for 2 minutes before my first interval, and I was telling myself this: "Run the first one easy enough that you have energy for a full 2 miles in your 2nd interval, and then run your 2nd so you die." That was my goal.

My first mile was around 5:53, and then I turned back into the slight breeze. I was happy with my first 2 miles:

2:59.2, 2:54.3, 2:55.6, 2:57.9 = 11:47

After 3 minutes of walking rest, I hit it again. That goal of "run your 2nd interval so you die" was apparent in my first half mile split, because it ended up being my fastest all day at 2:50! I ran that 2nd interval about perfectly as I was hashed but didn't have to throw in the towel:

2:50.9, 2:55.6, 2:52.1, 2:56.2 = 11:35

Here's what my Garmin showed me:

Overall route, with the 2 mile intervals on the left (obviously).


Close up of the start/finish area: speed to the upper left, and slow walking everywhere else.


Sometimes, my heartrate reads "funny" on my new Garmin. Mile 4.5-5.5 was my
final fastest/hardest mile, and did NOT drop like that. (The peak around mile 3 near
the end of the first interval is climbing the hill back into St. Paul.)


Pace chart. The 2 intervals (with a turn-around in the middle of each) are pretty apparent.


As always, my footstrikes are more around my "ideal" of 180 when I'm running fast.

OK, I knew I didn't break any personal records (I feel like my best for this workout was on the flat Greenway with intervals around 11:34 and 11:24), but I felt pretty good about those splits, ESPECIALLY for having just been on the treadmill since Christmas! I've been feeling like my running has been on the right track lately. So I looked back over the last 10 times I did this workout, and here's what I found:

- Jan 2022: failed on the treadmill
- Dec 2021: last outside run 10 weeks ago (11:48 and 11:51)
- Oct 2021: after the TC 10 Mile and before a half marathon (11:43 and 11:48)
- Sept 2021: a "test" for my leg coming back after an injury (12:09 and 11:59)
- March 2021: first outdoor speed workout of 2021 (11:53 and 11:53)
- Feb 2021: treadmill version 13 months ago (11:50 and 11:24)
- Dec 2020: last stroller run! (11:59 and 11:49)
- Sept 2020: after a summer of coming back from my foot injury (11:54 and 12:06)
- May 2019: three years ago feeling good (11:37 and 11:42)
- April 2019: flat trail instead of along the river 3 years ago (11:39 and 11:31)

So notice I was decently faster than 10 weeks ago (17 secs total) when I was coming off a decent TC 10 Mile and pretty great half marathon. And I was quite faster than a year ago (24 secs total). I have to go back nearly 3 years to those last 2 workouts listed above to have splits faster than what I ran on Friday. And that year (2019) started pretty average, but ended with some really strong races - see my non-mobile sidebar under "2019 Race Schedule." However, 2019 is also when I got my foot injury and stopped running for 7 months, so let's not go down that route...

Oh, and if you missed it, here's a link to my photo blog to the post about the opening of my solo exhibition 10 days ago. Check it out! And go see it in-person if you'd like! It's up for another few weeks.