track workout

I signed up to get the Sunrise Striders bi-weekly emails that prescribe various speed workouts in an effort to a) get faster and b) do something besides running slow miles every time I go out.  Since I no longer live in COS, I'll just be an honorary strider and try to go it alone.

Tuesday's run was of the recovery flavor and I had some stuff to do after work so I opted for another day off after the Ascent. 

Last night I got the email for Thursday's workout that prescribed yet another easy run in Ute Valley Park but for those who are actually training for something - you get to go run 5 x 1000m cruise intervals.  Ok! Sign me up.... but what the hell is a cruise interval?  I did a quick Google search and figured that I would aim for a low 9 min pace for a tempo type run in interval form.  I poked around on my Garmin and found that I could set it to count off the intervals for me and accommodate warmup/cooldown and rest between intervals.  I dialed in the 5 x 0.62 mi intervals with 1 minute RBI and set my alarm for 5am.

Upon waking, I realized that it was not quite as bright at 5am as I was hoping.  I dug my headlamp out of a bag and threw it on to illuminate the terrain on the way over to the track.  I jogged easily to the track at the middle school near my house, dropped my water bottle, and hit the button to start the workout.  I went out at a pace that felt great for about 400 meters and struggled the second lap and a half to finish the first interval.  That one minute of rest felt like 15 seconds and I was back at it again.  The second set hurt worse than the first, but I still held a low 9 min pace.  For the third, I attempted to up the cadence but shorten my stride with little success.  The last two kinda clicked off as I zoned out watching the traffic spill out of the nearby neighborhoods. 

After the last interval, I jogged the 3/4 of a mile back to my house and walked the dog around the block since he was rather upset that I went without him.  Ended up with 5.25 mi in 58 minutes.  Looking forward to see what next Tuesday's workout is.