Three challenging, one easy workout this week

Tuesday was a sprint workout day and that called for seven 1/2 mile sprints.

I was a little nervous about the volume of this workout, but once I got into it everything seemed to go just fine and I cruised much faster than anticipated.

Here are the times:

3:14, 3:05, 3:02, 3:06, 3:04, 3:02 and finally the last lap faster than three minutes at 2:57!

After a day off, Thursday called for an easy run of 30-45 minutes, so I decided to do four miles. Nothing special here, but still feeling the effects from Tuesday's sprints.

I did four miles in 32:39 for a 8:10 average mile pace.

Friday's workout was much more intense. This was a tempo run of five miles plus a mile warmup and a mile cool down for seven total miles.

Total run including warmup and cooldown was done in 51:57 for a 7:26/mile pace!

Here are the splits:

8:12 (warmup), 6:56, 7:00, 7:08, 7:13, 7:07 and 8:18 (cooldown)

I was flying during some of these miles that were done at a moderate pace, I'm guessing that's around 80 percent effort, perhaps I ran them a little harder than that though.

Saturday I had to work so not much of a day off for recovery before my next challenging workout.

Sunday's run was for 10 miles. My legs were definitely not as fresh for the long run, and despite some heavy gusts of wind for some stretches, I still ran at a pretty good clip. This is a good sign that my training is progressing well.

Here are the splits:

8:02, 7:51, 7:35, 7:42, 7:41, 7:44, 7:49, 7:42, 7:56 and 7:47. Total was 10 miles in 1:17:56 for a 7:48/mile pace!

Hypothetically, if I could have held that pace for another 3.1 miles, I would have run a 1/2 marathon in 1:42:15. But this was just a training run and I wasn't fresh at all, so who knows?

I know for sure that I'm done with week three of the 10-week training program for the 1/2 marathon. I'm running paces that are certainly giving me hope that I can establish a new 1/2 marathon PR June 6 in Concord.

Right now, my best time in a half marathon is 1:36:25 last fall at the Towpath 1/2 Marathon.

Can't wait to see what happens!

Runners World Quote of the Day:

"I tape my list of goals, both large and small, above my bed so I see them when I wake up. This holds me accountable."

Chris Solinsky, Elite runner from Portland, Oregon

Happy running!