Last Workout Before USATF Club XC

3.72 mile warmup

Goal:
Fartlek cut Down

Actual:
~3-2-2-3-2-1 with ~ 2 min rest @ ~5:14-5:25 pace

~ 4 miles cool down

Jordan is running the Thunder Road Marathon on Saturday. This didn't stop him from doing a workout with me today...or from putting in over 20 miles on each of those days. Despite the three days until his 26.2, he has run two workouts with me in the past week. He not only ran two workouts with me, but before each workout, he already put in at least 9 miles with a different group. Take, for instance, last Saturday: Jordan ran the Thunder Road course preview run for 13 miles, and then ran over 14 miles with us at McAlpine for a tempo. Today, his running schedule was a bit tamer as he had "only" run 8.6 miles prior to meeting up with me, where we ran at least 11-12 miles. While this sort of training approach would probably tear my Achilles in half, this seems to be working fine for him as he has not been injured in over a year. It will be exciting to see how Jordan does on Saturday. He's definitely put in the work.

So back to the workout. Jordan and I left our respective houses to meet halfway on the Sugar Creek Greenway. I got a late start and pushed the first two miles of my "warmup" to run under 7 min pace for both miles. Once I caught Jordan, we eased the pace back down to a more respectable range. I like to keep my workouts before races as fun and low key as possible. So, today I decided to do something different. Jordan and I would run around the Dilworth Speed Loop twice for our workout. I just chose markers to run fast towards, and once we reached those markers, we slowed to a jog rest. We repeated this cycle for two loops and ended up running at a pretty speedy clip. I really just wanted to maintain a solid form, control my breathing, and focus on the target. Although Jordan created a gap between us on several occasions, I visualized picking off girls in the race.

Splits On (off)
3:18 (1:36) at 5:22 pace
2:06 (1:44) at 5:23 pace
2:01 (2:02) at 5:14 pace
3:07 (2:20) at 5:30 pace (felt terrible)
2:18 (1:36) at 5:20 pace
1:16 for 400m

My splits were faster than anything I've done since the summer, which would explain why I felt so oxygen-deprived on the third interval. I got a boost of energy on the last 400m when Rebecca drove by and shouted words of encouragement. As we finished, we walked back to her house to check for some water, and, as a testament to how much Corbett and Rebecca support runners, they had water bottles conveniently out on the porch since the water dispenser wasn't out. I'll keep dreaming up the day that I own a house on the Dilworth speed loop and do the same thing.

In other news, Garrett took me to a homeopathic doctor in Kings Mountain, NC. His great aunt goes to this place, and they told me lot of cool stuff about my iron deficiency and then gave me a vile of liquid that I'm to take twice a day. They told me that I had had the flu (just got over that a week ago) and a bout of food poisoning (no idea) recently and that I'd been exposed to pesticides. Considering that I eat mostly organic, the only thing that could explain the pesticides exposure would be when I got the house sprayed for ants. Anyways, it was a great birthday present for a wannabe hippie like me. Now let's see what happens to my iron levels. Granted, it would be best for me to get my iron checked right now, before I start taking the liquid concoction. Stay tuned.