May 18

FIT:
11pm run.... oooooohhhhh, yeah.

It's like I won the golden ticket... a key to the fitness room.  It's almost like a personal gym now.  I'm one step closer to my dream of owning my own gym, haha.  I got it about a week ago, but I didn't have the need to take advantage of it until tonight.  My legs were craaaaaaving a run because they were feeling x-sore and wanted to work work work.  They kind of felt like... if you pull back a slingshot, it's all stretched, and it wants so badly to be released and to do some awesome stuff.  So I ran.

I initially wanted to do a long run, but given the hour, but more given my legs' desire to bang something out and to work out the soreness, I went with intervals.  It's good timing, anyway, since it's been a while since my last speed session, which was actually hills and not speed... a month since the last interval session, and 3 weeks since the hills... that's because I back-to-back 5Ks, so I did get in speed.  Intervals are satisfying... can be brutal sometimes, but always satisfying.

1.5 mi warmup @ 7.5mph (longer than usual, because my legs started off at 7.5mph, because they were ready to start pounding out, but they felt kind of tight, so it took a bit to fully loosen up), then 6 x [1/4 @ 9.5mph, 1/4 @ 7.5mph.

One of my most memorable interval sessions in the past was 20 quarters @ about 1:30, with full stopping for like 45s in between.  So... this was... 9.5mph = 6:19 pace, so each quarter was 1:34.  So it was about the same, but with 7.5mph jogging (felt pretty sluggish following the sprints... normally, 7.5 feels fairly quick) for a quarter before going again.  It's faster than goal 5K pace, which was my intention.  I normally do intervals at about 5K PR pace, which perhaps explains why my PR is there and not faster.  Granted, I'd go longer than 1/4 mi, but I think I could probably extend what I did today, especially as my legs get used to the pace.  A 6:19 pace would be a 19:35 5K... a gooooood bit faster than my goal.  But not completely out of reach.

I wore Saucony Fastwitch's so that I could go as fast as possible and build those neuromuscular connections and push that speed.  It was cool outside... almost cold... today.  So the gym was a cooler 75 degrees (it's 70 degrees in the winter, but 77ish on hot summer days).  Afterwards, I kind of wanted to go again, it felt so good.  What a wonderful gift from God it is to be able to run.