Today was a juggling act for me. I had to work and go to a doctor's appointment. I decided to break things up into two runs. I'd hit the track between work and the appointment. I needed new shoes, so I decided to go to the Emmaus Run Inn group run in the evening.
I didn't want to go to Nazareth's track during school hours, so I headed down to Lehigh. I got a bit later start than I would've liked. The plan was to run 4X400 repeats. I didn't want to push too much, but just run slightly faster than I'm used to.
The weather was quite nice. The challenging thing was that it was windy. I had to account for that during each lap. I ran shirtless and that was a good decision.
I began with a mile warmup. There was another woman running slowly. She took lane #1, so I opted for lane #3. At least it wasn't busy at this point. A few more people showed up later.
I took off on the first repeat. I tried to run in control and be smooth. I was more careful on the backstretch, with the headwind. I felt awesome as I flew down the homestretch. That first repeat was run in 1:20.
I recovered with an easy 400. I was happy because my legs didn't feel great earlier, but now were pretty good. I took off again, for the second repeat. This seemed a little more challenging and maybe even slower, but it was the same time, 1:20.
I did the recovery thing and took off once more. Now, I was starting to feel a little tired and it showed. I tried to be consistent, but I slowed to 1:22. Another easy 400 and I was on to the last segment. Since I knew it was my last one, I pushed a little harder. I definitely was still saving something though. I thought my time would be faster with more effort, but it was still only a 1:19.
I didn't have much extra time, so I only did a cooldown, but I opted for 2 miles of that. Now that the weather is improving, I'd like to do a couple sets of these in the future. I hope this pays off a little, as it is some faster running.
My doctor's appointment took long, but I made it to the Emmaus Run Inn early and got my new shoes. I'd break them in during this run. There was an impressively large group. This used to be so small when I started running here a few years ago.
I figured that I might try to hang with Aaron. He used to destroy me on these runs, but I got better. The big question was how recovered would I be from the short track workout. I had to try to stay with him, because I didn't know the route at all. I still don't know Emmaus one bit.
Since it was cooler, I opted for a regular tech shirt. That was okay, but I did still sweat a lot. I should've went with a singlet.
There were a bunch of young guys there and I thought that they might be fast. I planned to stick with Aaron and drop back, hopefully to Brian, if I couldn't hang. Aaron went to the front and I followed him.
It turns out that the young guys weren't all that fast. We pulled away in no time. I was breathing a little heavy, since I began at a fast effort. I settled in and was still able to have a conversation.
We talked about training and a lot about ultra running, since he's done some of that. He just destroys me on trails. The miles did click by. We were heading to Salisbury Middle School. I had never run this route.
I let Aaron lead the way and really I had no clue how to get back either. I wasn't paying much attention. That first mile and a half or so wasn't too bad, but mile 2 to the turnaround killed me. There was this very long and gradual hill. It didn't seem that hard, but it went on and on and on.
I started to fall back at this point. Aaron didn't get too far away though. I knew we were only going to 2.5 miles and turning around, so I dug in. It would be downhill on the way back.
Aaron may have slowed, but whatever the case, I was on his heels when we finally hit the turnaround. I was relieved. I was very happy to head back.
I don't know if we backed off our effort, but going back was much, much easier. The downhill was a piece of cake. My breathing was no longer as labored and the miles really flew by this time. It helped to pass everyone that was going out. Dorf was impressed with how far ahead we were.
Aaron said he wanted to slow down even more. That was fine with me. I was in no rush. This was a good workout, but I wasn't looking to kill myself with it.
Before long, we were back on the main road. We passed someone who had turned around early. She commented that we were going fast. I thanked her. Rather than cross the road and worry about traffic, I did a short run out to get to mile 5.
It was a productive pair of runs. I was happy with the track workout. I wish the evening run felt a little easier at that pace. Maybe it was the hill that bothered me. Either way, I need to run a half marathon faster than that next week. Hopefully the weather will be nicer and I'll sweat even less then.
Tomorrow, I'm not sure what I'm doing. However, I do plan to get back on trails. If I have the desire to drive, I might head out to the Hamburg Reservoir. I want to explore those trails sometime. That could be fun.
Track Workout 5 miles - 35:54 (7:11 pace)
Emmaus Run Inn group run 5 miles - 34:22 (6.53 pace)
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