A Good One, Finally

Wednesday night was running group night and we had mile intervals on the schedule.  I have been really struggling with the Wednesday night group runs lately, not only are they tough workouts but the temps have been well over 90 with nasty humidity.  (Gotta love summer in the Ohio Valley.)  Add in the trip to Cali and I've had a rough few weeks when it comes to training.  Last Saturday I managed to go 16.5 miles, but struggled with 3 on Monday.  I fully expected to be miserable doing 5- 1 mile intervals.

The run started with a 2 mile warm up to our interval loop.  We always go too fast on the way there, something about having faster runners all around makes you want to go fast.  Unfortunately when I start out too fast I usually crash too soon.  I averaged a 9:30 mpm pace for the warm up...  9:30 should be my interval pace! 

After a quick drink and letting the faster runners get started, I started with the 9:30 pace runners.  It was only about 85 with low humidity and a light breeze, finally some less miserable weather.  At the end of the first lap I checked my trusty Garmin and our loop was .85 miles (so a little less than the 1 mile on the schedule) and my pace was 9:30 on the nose! 

Another drink and off for laps 2-5. 

2 - 9:30, right on agian!
3 - 9:35, darn a little slow, but not bad.
4 - 9:24, nice!
5 - 9:09, WOW!

I was feeling great after the intervals, almost fast again.  (I think after this marathon I'll be ready to do a fast half in the spring.  Remember fast for me is anything under a 9:30 pace.)  The 2 miles back to the running store was a little tougher.  I still managed to keep the pace under 10:00, so I was happy with that. 

8.25 miles in 1:20, not bad