Running on - Rockstar Status...
The plan was to try and get 5 miles in - the longest I've run in a very long time! The real plan was for 3 miles, but I need to push myself - this difference in mileage will come into play. In order to change it up and actually look forward to those 5 miles, I decided to do 7/3 intervals. Since I've had a couple of good 45 minute non-stop runs and feeling good about my half hour runs (heart rate, hills), 7/3s sounded very doable. After all, this is the magical long, slow run - so doable it has to be.
It was drizzling. I decided to run a couple of loops in case it started to rain. Intervals 1 and 2 felt like I was slogging. Intervals 3 and 4 (both ending up being downhills) were a little too fast. No rain, so I took interval 5 out onto the highway and this is where the negotiations began...
I was already 3.3 miles into the run, so in my head I was sorta done. I promised myself I could finish it up at 6 intervals. And I kept promising myself that - the 5th interval was hard. The sixth, better because I could taste the finish. THEN...
The timing couldn't have been better. I would end the 6th interval at the bottom of our subdivision, giving me a lovely walk/cool down back up to our house. BUT, as I approached the end of that interval, I spied the hill that goes past the turn-in. On Tuesday, I ran that hill as a finish to my non-stop 45 minute run. Today, I faced the opportunity to do it again. And I told myself that if I did it, I would be a rockstar!
Mind games! I went for it - chugged up that hill and may have done a fist pump at the top. I continued to run back down, ending at the entrance to the subdivision at the end of the 7 minute interval. I was pumped. And, of course, a rockstar!
My refueling of choice today was a hot bowl of Alphaghetti - and I couldn't help myself.
It was drizzling. I decided to run a couple of loops in case it started to rain. Intervals 1 and 2 felt like I was slogging. Intervals 3 and 4 (both ending up being downhills) were a little too fast. No rain, so I took interval 5 out onto the highway and this is where the negotiations began...
I was already 3.3 miles into the run, so in my head I was sorta done. I promised myself I could finish it up at 6 intervals. And I kept promising myself that - the 5th interval was hard. The sixth, better because I could taste the finish. THEN...
The timing couldn't have been better. I would end the 6th interval at the bottom of our subdivision, giving me a lovely walk/cool down back up to our house. BUT, as I approached the end of that interval, I spied the hill that goes past the turn-in. On Tuesday, I ran that hill as a finish to my non-stop 45 minute run. Today, I faced the opportunity to do it again. And I told myself that if I did it, I would be a rockstar!
Mind games! I went for it - chugged up that hill and may have done a fist pump at the top. I continued to run back down, ending at the entrance to the subdivision at the end of the 7 minute interval. I was pumped. And, of course, a rockstar!
My refueling of choice today was a hot bowl of Alphaghetti - and I couldn't help myself.
Brenda and I are looking at options for the big even to end this quest and one of those options ends in a killer uphill mile. I need to be seriously working on hill climbs at the end of my runs.
J
I love the bonus miles that intervals brings!
ReplyDeleteWay to push on further with your planned run!
Thanks, David - was pretty stoked at that mileage count :)
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