Teusday Intervals

Today is Tuesday and I did bust out some intervals this morning but first I should give some background on the past few days/runs.

Friday morning (before working my 3rd 12 hour day in a row) I got up and ran outside.  I ran one of my standard out and back routes for 3.8 miles.  I used my handy "split" feature on my watch to record my time out the first 1.9 miles and then back.  I felt good on this run but did have some scary thoughts because no one really knew where I was running or that I was out running.  Brian was still unreachable in the Caribbean, my roommate was asleep and usually doesn't get up till after 7am and my parents probably knew I was running but didn't know my route.

I run with all the necessary safety items but there still was a worry in my mind.  Would the guys I work with wonder where I was and would they try to contact someone if I didn't show up to work?  Were there any traces at my apartment of what route I had taken?  In college I used to leave notes on the kitchen counter for my roommates that said "Left for run at 5am, will be back at 5:45, if you get this note and it is past that time I took this route on my run".  Usually Brian knows my routes because I tell him the night before but still its not completely fool proof.  This was just a reminder that I need to be safer!

Saturday morning I woke up exhausted so I waited till Sunday for another run.  I just didn't know where I wanted to run though so I opted for the same old 3.8 mile out and back route from Friday.

I have noticed with all my outdoor winter running that I am slower in the morning.  I think because my core temperature never really warms up because I wake up and am out the door running 10 minutes later.  On Sundays run it took my over 40 minutes to get out the door and I noticed the difference.

Friday vs. Sunday
First 1.9 miles = 15:37 vs. 14:29
Second 1.9 miles = 15:16 vs. 14:13

Basically I dropped two whole minutes on the run and I think that is because I was more awake and my body has been given a chance to "wake/warm up".

Monday I could not drag myself out of bed which really is a first for me.  Usually when my alarm goes off, I am awake and out of bed and into the bathroom.  I just laid in bed until 5:20am and by that time it was too late to go to the gym and still make it to work so I just skipped the cross training I had planned.  I did go to yoga after work though which was really good because we focused on hips.  My legs felt very tired after the hour of yoga.

So that brings us to Tuesday.  Although the temperature outdoors has been in the mid 40s during the day, mornings and nights have still been in the 30s so I went for the treadmill.

11 minutes warm up (because I just didn't feel ready at 10 minutes)
6x1000m at 7:08 pace
0.75 mile cool down

Honestly I didn't really feel like I was pushing the pace during this workout.  I know that I felt good most of the time until the end when my body was feeling the mileage (6.75 total) on the treadmill.  It could be my shoes though which have 348 miles on them.  Running intervals on the treadmill really allows me to zone out and not pay attention.  I look for the key distance markers for starting and stopping each sprint but otherwise I just don't even really think.  Its like auto pilot - my legs are running but my mind is only 10% focused on the treadmill while the other 90% runs off and thinks about who knows what! I can't even remember what I thought about for the 54 minutes I ran!

Well this turned into a very rambling post! Thanks for reading! I am posting this late on Tuesday night so hope everyone has a great Wednesday!!