intervals and race pace

This morning I actually woke up well rested and ready to run.  Well, at least my mind was ready to run.  As soon as I started the excuses also started up.

On the cards was 4 x 1600m.  I was planning on a mile warm up and cool down, and a quarter of a mile rest between repeats.  I went out nice and slow.  My legs felt tired.  I worked it out, if I did what was planned it was 7 miles.  7 miles!  That is ridiculous! I can't run 7 miles as a 'normal' run (i.e. not a long run).  I thought about doing half a mile warm up and cool down.  But at the half mile point, my legs didn't feel warmed up.  I kept going.

I thought about only running 3 repeats.  That means 1 mile less.  Take off the recovery, that means 1.25 miles less.  Yea.  I can do that.  So after my mile warm up, I went on to try and find my race pace.

I went a little too quick.  8 minutes 30 seconds for the first mile.  I was feeling a little better.  I walked for 0.1 of a mile, then jogged for 0.15 to reach a quarter of a mile.  I decided I could turn around half way through my next repeat and head back.  I tried to go easier, and focus on slowing down.

Half way through the repeat I thought I would go a quarter of a mile more, let's make it an even 3 miles, then I can turn around - for a total run of 6 miles.  That sounds good.

I reached three miles, and thought, well - I only have a quarter of a mile to go until the end of my repeat.  I can do 4 repeats.  And that was it.  Four repeats in the bag!  Sometimes you just need to trick your mind.

My splits:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:05:37.6	7.00	9:23
1	9:50.7	1.00	9:48
2	8:30.1	1.00	8:30
3	3:16.0	0.25	13:04
4	8:36.8	1.00	8:37
5	3:08.8	0.25	12:32
6	8:30.6	1.00	8:31
7	3:03.6	0.25	12:15
8	8:18.8	1.00	8:19
9	3:03.3	0.25	12:14
10	9:19.0	1.00	9:21

The second mile I tried to slow it down a little.  The third I just ran comfortable hard, and didn't look at my watch.  The fourth was tough.  I ran faster than my race pace, and the end hurt.  By the end of it I was happy I was done!

I am so happy I managed to convince myself to go out and run this workout.  It was tough, my legs felt tired - but not sore in anyway.  A huge motivation is knowing there are great runners out there, and they do it.  They are fast, but they work for their speed.  

If I want to get faster I need to put in the hard work.