I had a pretty blah start to my run yesterday. I was running slower than my half marathon pace and my legs felt like mud.
After slogging along for a mile and a half, I decided that running steady miles wasn’t really working for me, so I threw in some repeats and started to do 400 meters hard, 400 meters easy.
There were a few attempted repeats that I had to cut short thanks to the rolling hills in the area, but I managed four solid 400s, my recovery 400s weren’t THAT much slower than my warm up pace had been, and I ran the last half mile at a beautiful 9:46 pace. You know, the pace I really should be running my 3 and 4 mile runs at based on my interval and half marathon paces.
Sometimes when a run isn’t working it’s nice to mess around with it.
I felt great when I got back, my average pace was much closer to what I wanted, and my legs felt tired in a way they wouldn’t have if I’d continued to slog along.
I wonder if I’d just done a couple 200s if that would have broken the slow pace enough to settle into 10 minute miles sooner, rather than shifting my entire workout.
Something to try in the future 🙂
In the meantime, can we celebrate the fact that it’s SPRING?!
I know I’m in a particularly gorgeous place this week, but wherever you are, get out there and raise your arms to the sunshine.
Seek out the best of nature near you, fill your lungs with fresh air.
Enjoy every moment that your children are rearranging mother earth’s living room and not yours.
I am SO happy for spring! The weather is finally warming up here in northern MN, and it’s getting lighter earlier in the morning. Hopefully that means fewer and fewer runs in the dark!