How does a normal person celebrate their birthday? Probably with a big lunch and dinner, hopefully with some cake and ice cream, and drinks. While that all sounds good, I celebrate my birthday by running. Specifically, running tough workouts. Last year I ran 12 total miles and for the workout did 40 reps of 40 seconds on and 40 seconds off. The year before, I ran 11 miles (not sure why I didn't run 12 for the 12th) and did the 5,4,3,4,3,2,3,2,1 fartlek. In 2015, I raced a marathon on my birthday.
Today I ran 12 total miles. For the workout, I ran 12 reps of 200 meters with 600 meters slow jog. Shawn joined me and we really kept up a solid pace. It was helpful that the weather wasn't as humid - a cool breeze kept us feeling fresh. It probably also helped that we were pacing each other. At times, we weren't sure which one of us was pushing the pace. But, we very pleased with our effort.
Workout: Warm up, 1 lap of striders, 12x200 meters with 600 easy jog, cool down.
Pace = 34.8/36.3/35.3/35.6/35.6/35.2/35.3/34.8/34.5/34.9/34.8/31.5
We really sprinted that last repeat. Shawn said he was trying to keep up with me. I thought he was pushing the pace. Either way, we were winded - close to a 4:20 mile if we could hold that (we can't).
This was on the heels of Monday's fartlek. I ran Miles to daycare then ran home, extending it from the usual 5 miles to 7 to get in the work. It was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 minutes on with equal rest of jogging. The paces were closer to half marathon and 10K pace than the mile, which was fine since I was mostly running up hill as I came home the MBT trail. There were two reps where I had to stop due to traffic, giving me extra rest.
With just over a week until the race, it feels like our sub 5 goal remains on pace. Next week we may do either 20 repeats of 100 meters or a ladder consisting of 100, 200, 300, 400, 400, 300, 200, 100 meters. I'm not sure of the rest on either yet.
For the rest of today, I hope there is cake somewhere. My wonderful and supportive wife gave me a Snickers this morning - my favorite candy bar that I never eat!
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