In other news, I'm an idiot....

Yet another rainy day prompted me to hit the gym again. Seriously this is getting old. But as I've stated before, I actually enjoy doing speedwork on a treadmill, so I did a swaparoo with the schedule to allow just that. On the agenda: 5 miles. 1 mile warm up, 4x800 m. @ 3:43 pace, w/400 m. jogs, & 1 mile cool down.

Totally forgot how packed the gym is right after work. Blech. I did my warm up mile, stretched the quads and calves, set the speed at 9.6 and was off. HOLY CRAP. I did this same work out 2 weeks ago only with 3 instead of 4 800's and felt fine, hence the addition of another 800. But I was s-t-r-u-g-g-l-i-n-g. After I hit .5, I hit the lap button on my garmin to record my split and slowed down to a walk to catch my breath. I couldn't believe that this was so much harder than 2 weeks ago! While walking I scrolled through my history and time to see what my split was: 3:16. A pace of 6:30. WHAT?!?!? And then it hit me, somewhere during my poor mental math skills, when doubling 3:43 I came up with 6:26, and that's what I set the treadmill at. TURNS OUT...3:43 x 2 = 7:26. Heheh, whoops! No wonder it felt so tough. :p

I was relieved (to say the least) that me dying was not from being out of shape/slowing down, and even MORE relieved that I didn't have to do 3 more of those puppies, because I was ready to walk out of the gym after one. Uff. The last 3 felt like a breeze in comparison. It definitely gave me a lot of confidence going in to my 5k for this Saturday.

I did 5 miles in 46:23 for a pace of 9:17. (This included .05 walking after each interval and .2 jogging).
Warm up Mile: 9:52
Interval 1: 3:15 (6:30 pace)
Recovery 1: 3:06
Interval 2: 3:38 (7:16 pace)
Recovery 2: 3:06
Interval 3: 3:34 (7:08 pace)
Recovery 3: 3:03
Interval 4: 3:44 (7:28 pace)
Recovery 4: 3:18
Cool down Mile: 9:47

**Disclosure: I was totally "that girl" during the final 1.25 recovery/cool down. I flipped through the People I had been previously using to cover up the treadmil screen. It helped pass the time sooooo much, and I found the updo I want to wear for my old roomies wedding next weekend. SCORE. But ya, I looked like a douche probably. :) **
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October RACES

So speaking of my 5k this weekend, I'm trying to sort through my races for the rest of the month. Obviously, the weather is changing here in the Midwest, and before too long races will be out of the question. Heck we might've already reached that point, who knows. I'm doing a 5k this Saturday to try to break my current PR and go under 24 minutes. There's another 5k on the 24th of this month that I was contemplating doing and actually racing, just because I figure it'll be my last shot at a 5k for 2009. And then there's a 10k on Halloween that I'm also interested in doing. I've never done a 10k before, so auto-PR. I'd try to race it, but more just to do a 10k then to get a killer time. Also, let's be honest, I remember wearing snow suits under my Halloween costumes as a kid, so there is a good possibility I could be running 6.2 in the snow. :p

Since that's 3 races in 4 weeks time, I realize that could be a bit much, but I was thinking I could substitute the races for the speedwork I currently have on the schedule for those weeks (I'm starting Dallas White Rock half marathon training next Monday. WHOO!) Any thoughts? Suggestions? Interest in dressing up as a banana and entering the Halloween race with me? Seriously...I've always wanted to race in a banana costume. I might try to snag one on clearance post-Halloween this year to have as a standby for the future.

Go to Amanda's blog at RunToFinish for her sweet Moeben giveaway!