3x2 Mile Repeats

Goal:
3x2 Mile with 2 min rest at 610, 600, 550

Actual:
2 mile warmup
3x2 Mile in 11:52 (6:00 | 5:52), 11:30 (5:45 | 5:44), 11:19 (5:43 | 5:36)
3 mile cool down for 11 miles total

My alarm went off at 5:20am, and, not surprisingly, the last thing I wanted to do was to workout.  I grudgingly pulled myself out of bed and got ready in less than 10 minutes to head out the door to meet Spada and Eric at the Dilworth Speed Loop by 5:50am.  On my solo warmup in the dark, my legs didn't feel fully recovered from last week, but my hip flexor and glute medeus finally were not tight!  It felt like a huge weight of stress was lifted from my shoulders and I took a deep exhale, crossing my fingers that this feeling of normalcy for the first time since pre-marathon would stay for the remainder of my spring training.

Once I hit the Speed Loop, Spada, Eric and I all jogged to the starting point near the intersection of Dilworth Rd W and Dilworth Rd E.  I verbalized the fact that I wanted to run 6-610 for the first set and to gradually get faster.  Inside, I thought to myself that I would be lucky to hit the 540s today.  I was in for a pleasant surprise. 

We took the pace out conservatively through the 400m, and then I decided to start pushing it.  The mile mark hit right before a nice downhill, so I charged down, hoping to create an equilibrium between the quickly approaching uphill section.  I lead the way on this interval and felt great.

For the second interval, I wanted to make sure it was faster than the first, so after 400 meters of Eric taking the lead, I took charge again to push the pace harder and faster.  It was a lot of fun doing this because I haven't had that desire to push the pace in a really long time in any of my workouts. 

After another two minutes of rest, we began our third and final repeat.  I faltered a bit after the 1.25 mark, but I found it within myself to power up a hill and take the lead once again.  That alone used up a lot of my energy, so after that I fell off the boys a little bit, but I still came through my last mile with my fastest split of the day. 

All in all, this workout was rather enjoyable because of the cat/mouse game that I kept playing with the guys and also because of how well I pushed my body forward.  I felt really awesome and the workout just made me excited to race again.  I haven't raced in almost 7 weeks, but I am beginning to see the payoff from my training over those weeks.  I've also decided not to run a 5k this weekend because I don't want to drive over two hours for $250.  Instead, Garrett, John and I will hang out in Charlotte!