Usually when I've done this on my own, it has been a little more structured. Today, Kelley and I met up to run it together. We would alternate who gets to lead each fast interval. The other person would have no idea when it would start or end, the pace or the duration of each interval. Not only does this get you moving faster, but it provides for practice in changing paces during a race.
We met at the D&L Trail in Cementon near her house. I needed a soft stone surface after the pavement beat up my legs yesterday. We started at 10 AM and the weather was almost perfect. It was cool out and not even 80 yet. Most of the trail is shaded, the parts that aren't were a little hot.
We started off with a mile warmup before getting into the meat of the workout. Even the warmup was a little fast. Kelley just likes to go, go, go. The warmup was a good chance to chat for a little. I was wondering how much we'd talk during the run, but it worked out well. We talked during recovery and then concentrated the rest of the time.The main part of the workout was four miles long. I started off with a decent pace for the first interval. I like to start slow and build after that. In Kelley's first segment, she really made me work. She was flying and I could barely keep up. She didn't give us much recovery time after my segment.
After I told her we didn't have to go that crazy so early on, we settled into a more reasonable pace. I again led with a decent, but manageable pace. For her second fast paced interval, I tucked behind her and just stared at her legs. That helped pull me along and made it much easier. I did this from there on out to the end.
On the way back, I put in a tough longer segment. It was close to a quarter mile. I could tell Kelley struggled a little with that one. I had some trouble keeping up with her on her final segment. I actually just dropped back a little before she slowed down. I did throw in one more quick sprint at the end which I think caught her off guard and gave her some issues initially.
My legs were so, so today. They didn't feel dead, but weren't great either. They did manage to hold on though. I didn't feel any soreness in my shin at all during the run. It was still sore afterward though. Next week, I'll definitely try taking a few extra days off.
This was certainly a fun workout. One thing that was tough was when the other person had control of the segment. Not knowing the pace or distance is hard. That's just like a race though. When you are in control, it is so much easier. If you start to tire, you can stop sooner or if you feel great you can keep going.
On the final cool down mile, Kelley took off from me. I was wondering what she was doing, aside from just picking it up. She had taken a shortcut after a road crossing earlier and wanted to sync up our distances. At least that is what she claims.
While we are fairly close to the same speed right now, I feel like I'm holding Kelley back a little. Maybe that is a good thing. Otherwise she might end up running herself into the ground. I'm already coming close to doing that to myself. She is making for an excellent training partner. I think we are making each other better. I guess our future race results will show whether or not that is the case.
Tomorrow, will be the LVRR Group Run. Since today was an AM run and that is a PM run, there should be plenty of time to recover. I might take Friday off. I do plan on a fun group night run on Saturday. I'm glad Tom is back from vacation so we can start those up again. Next week, I might take some extra rest days.
6 miles - 50:18 (8:23 pace)
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