Workout of the year

Today, I achieved a workout of the year...  we'll see where it ultimately ranks come year end but right now it's the workout of the year...

I may have noted this previously, but I've been running pretty much the same course Tuesdays and Thursdays for a month now.  It's pretty much a 9.33 (15K) route out and back.  Mile 2-5 have rolling hills with mile 2 being a performance enhancing net downhill and mile 5 being a performance dampening uphill.  After mile 5 it's flatter although mile 6 is net down and 7 is definitely net uphill.

With more familiarity with the course each run, I'm learning when to push, when to relax, when to glide, and how to control the pace to allow me to run it faster and faster.  It's hard for me to wrap my head around it but it's just a different overall experience than the courses I've been running in Brimfield... part of it is probably change in routine but also, I've been running these runs with no headphones and I really suspect it is enhancing my focus and my ability to tune into my body.

I started running this course as part of a group run about 1 month ago...  the group aspect has been letting me down lately as no one else has been up for pushing my pace the last runs... despite that, the change of routine has literally resulted in a change of pace and I'm suddenly running "easy" miles at sub 7:30 pace on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Tuesday's I always feel a tad bit flat... but I always feel great on Thursdays.  Today was no exception.

Last Thursday I took off too fast and hit mile 2 and 3 at 6:3X pace.  I was treating it as more of  a tempo run but running that fast early didn't allow me to sustain a fast pace for 9 miles and I wound up slowing after 6 miles to 8 min-mile pace and cutting the run to 8 miles.  Today I thought that if I would control myself early, and finish fast instead and get the whole 9 miles in.

The weather was a nice 50 degrees and the relatively warmer air seemed to help my pace out of the gate and I hit the first mile in 7:01.  Going into mile 2, I knew it was downhill and just focused on staying relaxed and not pushing too hard, hitting a 6:50 pace.  I stayed relaxed to the turn around and hit mile 3 at 6:56... after the turn around I thought, maybe just take mile 4 and 5 easy and then start pushing more at mile 6... staying relaxed I kept cruising and ran mile 4 at 6:51.  Whoa... I was really cruising today and feeling great.  I again told myself to run mile 5 easier to save some efforts for the last half of the run... mile 5 is uphill and always one of the slowest miles... I hit it in 7:03 today... definitely a mile 5 record.  Mile 6 is downhill and I let it rip... 6:43 pace for the fastest mile of the day.

At the point my HR was creeping into the upper 160's (90% max) range and I was starting to struggle. I knew if I could just keep going through mile 7 I could hit a solid mile 8 and 9 and potentially break 7 minute pace for the day... hit mile 7 at 7:13 pace for the slowest mile of the day but also my fastest mile 7 ever.

After mile 7 there's another 1/4 mile of run to a turn around and then it's straight to the finish.  Close to the turn around I finally ran into the rest of my running group who had gone with a different 8 mile course.  By the turn around they were probably 1/4 mile ahead of me but going quite a bit slower.  It took me about a mile to catch them during a 6:51 mile 8.

I was dying as I passed them but knew I only had one mile left and enough time banked that a 7:30 mile for mile 9 would still get me under 7 on the day.  As I passed, one of the runners in the other group decided to give chase.  He was on my heels for the last mile and definitely pushed me on the pace... even as I was hurting I still hit the last mile in 6:56.  Heart rate peaked at 174 near the end.  Despite the fast pace I never felt like I was pushing past my limits and mostly just focused on staying calm and relaxed.  After mile 9, I wanted to stop my watch, but forced myself to push the last 1/3 of the mile to get to 15K... never really slowed down and covered the last 1/3 at 6:57 pace.

Final Stats:
9.33 miles
1:04:48
6:56 pace

When it was all over I felt great.  Later in the day I still feel pretty good.  Tired but not exhausted... plus my stomach has been less of an issue then previously.  Garmin says I need 62 hours to recover... not sure about that but I'll definitely take it easy til Sunday.