Originally, the plan for today was to run 7 miles at about a 7 minute pace. It was just to prepare for Sunday's marathon. However, the weather forecast for Cape May went from great to terrible. They are now calling for rain, wind and cold weather. Since the marathon is expensive now and I had nowhere to stay, I opted not to run it.
That left today open for a quality workout. I haven't actually done many of these over the last few months. All of my hard workouts have basically been races. I've had injury problems and I've been afraid to run hard too often. Plus, it isn't easy to do in the winter.
Now that spring is here, it is time to turn everything up a notch. I need more hard runs and more moderate runs. I'm not going to keep making gains like I have been, unless I start pushing myself out of my comfort zone. That meant a hard effort today.
I went out to The Route 33 Boat Launch. I wasn't sure what pace I'd run, but I wanted to try to sustain a hard effort for 7 miles. I started off and half a mile into it, my watched beeped. The battery was almost dead. I thought it was half full, but obviously it was not. I didn't want to run a quality workout without a watch, so I went home after a mile and recharged the watch.
About an hour and a half later, I was back there to run again. This time, I figured that I'd warm up with 1 easy mile, then run 7 hard miles and another easy mile to finish up. I felt pretty good in the earlier mile today.
The temperature still wasn't great, as it was barely over 40 degrees. There was a bit of a cold wind too, but at least that was at my back to start out. It was warm enough to wear only shorts and a short sleeve shirt for this hard run.
The first mile went great again. Now, the legs were warmed up. I gradually picked it up as the mile went along and ran it at 7:45.
Now, it was time to turn it up a notch. I ran what felt comfortably hard. My breathing was a little heavy, but I recalled that that is sometimes the case early on and after a mile or so, I'm able to adapt to the pace better. I hoped that would happen today.
It seemed like a good pace. I came through that first hard mile at 6:17. I was happy with that, although I was hoping maybe I'd be a little faster with the effort I was putting out.
I saw a guy earlier, as I was getting ready to begin my run. He got well ahead of me, but thanks to this hard effort, I was closing in on him quickly. I was disappointed when he turned around at Riverview. I wanted a pacer. I kept going.
I headed over to Hugh Moore Park. This mile had some early downhill and then eventually a little uphill. The hills are all small, so they don't slow that pace much. They do provide a decent challenge. I was amazed at how consistent I was. This second hard mile was a 6:17.
It didn't seem like the effort was hard in the beginning, but by now, I was feeling it. I pushed on though, rather than slow down. I wanted to at least get 3.5 hard miles and then hit the turn around and see what I had coming back. This next hard mile was exactly the same at 6:17.
I ended up hitting the turnaround just before the concrete section that heads into Easton. Immediately, I hit an uphill and a headwind. That was so deflating. I pushed on, but it slowed me down significantly. I came through the fourth hard mile at 6:22.
By now, I knew I was toast. I couldn't sustain this effort any more, so I backed off. I didn't completely shut it down though. I ran more of a moderate effort. After about half a mile, I recovered and got back into a better groove. This fifth hard mile was still a solid 6:46.
Since I had recovered, I started to really push it as I neared Hugh Moore Park. I was cruising against the wind. The hill after Hugh Moore Park took a ton out of me and slowed me down. I was determined to press on and at least put in this one last good, hard mile. It was a 6:31 and I was happy that I bounced back.
Again, I backed down, but not completely. I went to a moderate effort once more as I headed from Riverview to the Route 33 Boat Launch. This mile was certainly slower with a 7:21. Maybe I need to mix recovery into these runs so I can handle them better.
I saw a guy holding his dog. As I got closer, I realized it was a police dog. That scared me a little because if it got loose, it could attack. I'd imagine those are usually trained well. Still, it left me a little uneasy.
I finished up right before the parking lot. This last mile was a solid 7:06. I didn't quite run 7 hard miles, but I did do 6 miles all at 6:46 or under. I obviously went out too fast. I guess I was disappointed that I wasn't able to run more consistent, but I was happy with the effort anyway. I had Mexican food about 2 hours before the run, so I'm sure that didn't help, as my stomach didn't feel great.
In addition to more hard runs, I need to start hitting the weights a little. I think strength training could help my often sore quads. I worked my core yesterday and forgot how weak that area is. It is actually amazing that I can run as fast as I am right now, with such a weak core. I know I won't workout a lot, but maybe I can get some benefit by doing a little bit twice a week.
Tomorrow, I'm not sure what I'll do yet. I'm thinking about 10 miles. It will likely be for recovery, so maybe I'll run them at Jacobsburg. I guess I'll decide before I run. The weather looks quite nice next week, so I'm looking forward to that.
1 mile - 7:55 (7:55 pace)
9 miles - 1:00:42 (6:45 pace)
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