Training Log: Dec. 31 to Jan. 1

Yesterday, I did a 6 mile "Fartlek" run to music. I ran the choruses hard, and recovered during the verses. I went with the beat, so if the chorus was extended at the end, I stuck to the hard run. I got most of the songs and strategy from spinning classes.

My playlist was:
7 Things - Miley Cyrus
Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
So What - Pink
Bombs over Baghdad - Outkast (I ran comfortable-hard the whole song)
Thousand - Moby (amazing song for this)

I warmed up for over a mile and cooled down. During B.O.B., my average pace was 6:55min/mi. During Thousand, I watched 5:30ish on my watch for an extended period of time, which was awesome! I'm pretty sure I'd never run so hard before. This was the core to my speed-work the last 3 years, before I had my Garmin.

Today, I planned out an 8-mile route from the Silver Spring metro into DC. It would be mostly downhill, and so I was planning on doing 7:30/7:00 interval miles. I loved this workout last training season, so I thought I would cut the pace, especially since it was downhill, and the miles.

I was a little lost at the metro, and so I took a different route than planned. Wow. It was hilly!

And, the hills came at all the wrong times. I didn't make any of the 7:00 intervals, either because of a ridiculous hill, stopping and starting for streets, people getting in my way... it was really frustrating. To make the first 7:00, I did a 7:30 pace uphill. My hard was pounding at the top. Those hills totally killed me, I was fading by the end and my cool down mile was really difficult and slow.

But, mission accomplished! My quads are shot. My knees hurt, my hips were sore feeling... I definitely let those hills take a lot out of me. I'm bummed about that, seeing as this was 8 and not 26.2 miles, but I have months of training to get myself up there. Elevation gain was 1,329 feet and descent was 1,533 feet. Splits were 7:26, 7:08, 7:22, 7:20, 7:35, 7:23 with a mile of warm up, cool down, a mile run to the metro, and a mile back from the drugstore. Over 10 miles logged today. 10 miles to start off 2010 :)