Mixing It Up

This morning’s run mixed things up, literally – 10 miles total, the middle 6 alternated between a 10K pace and a marathon pace (goal 6:45 and 7:30 respectively). At the start of each mile I ran 3 minutes at the 10K pace and then finished out the mile at the marathon pace. I’m not gonna lie, I was nervous about my ability to seamlessly shift gears for 6 straight miles without some kind of cattle prod or dangling carrot, and I had no idea how this would feel. I didn’t do anything crazy, like program my watch to try to hit my paces, I ran by feel and used an old school method of occasionally glancing down at my watch to make sure I was close to my target. Surprisingly enough, this was a great workout, for both my legs and my brain. Added bonus that I hit my target windows.

Shifting between the harder and medium pace was interesting, and if you were to chart how my effort for each felt, it would look something like this:

With each subsequent mile, the 10K pace felt harder (to be expected), but the marathon pace felt easier, more like a recovery than a hard effort. I’ve found this in other speed sessions too, after running faster, especially during shorter bursts, my recovery time is a little faster than my normal easy pace, but feels slower. All things are relative? By the sixth mile, however, I was very glad to be finished, and once I started running an actual slow recovery pace the hard work sunk in, which is to say that I may have eaten a few of those words in declaring the marathon pace as something like recovery.

The rest of my day so far has been spent sitting (happily) and eating (also happily). Apparently I didn’t get the memo that it was “don’t come to work day”, as my fellow cohorts seem to be sparse, though I’ve been enjoying the quiet. And hey, no one is here to give me funny looks when I stand up to stretch or hop around. Tomorrow kicks off a long weekend with my in-laws in the Fire Belt, a.k.a. the sweltering heat of Missouri. We’ll be kicking it lake side for a few days, and while I’m not generally a lake person, it’ll be nice to get away. What can I say? I’m an East Coast girl. I prefer my bodies of water to be oceanic and roaring. Oddly, swimming in lakes creeps me out much more than swimming in the ocean. I’m not sure if this is entirely rationale. I don’t like muddy water, but I’ll happily risk being thrown lip first into the sand by a monstrous wave or suffering the company of a jellyfish. That slimy grass in the lake though? Keep me away!

Stay tuned for my adventures in the sweltering, mud-puddled heat. I am planning to run lakeside; going round and round it sounds much more appealing than going in it, though I suppose it’s okay to imagine going in as an emergency cooling off technique. Other than running, I plan to do a lot of nothing. Sitting outside as the heat permits, reading, feet dangling, eating, and (who I am kidding) wine sampling.

Wishing you a very happy hump day,

Sarah