slacking off paid off

woke up at 5am as usual to get my run in. have 4x1mile repeats on schedule at 7:12 pace with some warm up and cool down, and obviously i've been psyching myself out since my last run ended. i always get nervous about speed days because what if i can't hit my goal times? then i must really suck and it's like all i ever do is run 8:30-9:00mile recovery days which is not exactly ideal when you are trying to get faster and improve your endurance.

so i get outside - it's in the upper60s and less humid then it has been and my calves aren't sore. great right? no. my legs just still felt heavy :( so before i was even a mile into my warm up i decided i would come home and get an extra hour of sleep before work. the ever supportive boyfriend has been on my case lately about overtraining and not eating enough/properly so i kind of heeded his advice. kind of.

after spending 9 delicious hours in corporate america, i decided to head to the track and see if my legs/body felt up for some mile repeats. another warmup mile and 10 frankensteins later, i picked it up, clocking my first mile in 6:36. ok, now i'm thinking this track isn't a true quarter-mile because there's no way i just ran a 6:36mile without a lung collapsing. i am not exactly miss consistent when it comes to speedwork, and i expected it to hurt a little. i jogged a lap and decided to move from lane 1 to lane 3 for the second mile. that lane seems more accurately measured, and i ran the second mile in 6:59. big difference, i know, but i tried to hold back and run closer to my goal pace for the day of 7:12. after jogging another lap i headed into my third mile, and ended up hitting a 7:09. i could definitely feel my legs getting heavier (lactic acid anyone?) and it felt harder than the first two miles.

for a number of reasons, i didn't run the fourth mile and jogged an 800 cool down instead.

(reasons being:

1. i ran over 40mi last week, just 4 weeks back into running. can we say too much too soon? i don't want to spend my entire 18 weeks of training half-injured, so i'm attempting to cut back my originally planned miles for the week. (and mr. josh is even telling me to take it easy)
   
2. my lower calves didn't hurt one bit! i didn't want to overdo it in the least and cause them to start aching again.
   
3. ok ok, i did kind of wimp out a little when i started to 'feel it' in the third mile)

overall i'm satisfied with the results from today's speed day since i am always psyched out about them. a good hard workout makes me feel like i am making progress, and that maybe just maybe my goals aren't too far out of reach.

am run: 1.5 miles, super slow pace (like 9:30 i think)
pm run: 5miles, with 3xmile at 6:36, 6:59, 7:09