2000 Meter Intervals

This morning, it was a little cooler, maybe 72 degrees, but still quite humid, as we set out at 6:00 am to Zilker Park. I felt pretty clunky during the warmup to Zilker, stiff and out of sorts. During the drills, I still felt clumsy and stiff, but nothing hurt. Gilbert assigned 3-4 x 2000m (2:00 rest between) for those training for a marathon, 2 for those racing this weekend. I knew I wanted to do at least 3, to improve on the last time I did this workout back in September.

My group was Joseph and Henry. We went out intentionally relaxed, as Gilbert had suggested, and finished the first repeat in 9:58, 8:06 pace. I was surprised it was that fast. My legs started feeling a lot better as the workout went on. The second lap was Joseph and myself, as Henry fell back just a touch, and we pushed across in 9:22, which surprised me again. That one was at 7:37 pace. For the last one, we pushed it a little more, and we crossed in 9:01, or 7:20 pace. I was very pleased with this workout. I felt good once I sufficiently was warmed up, and we knocked them out in an overall pace faster than the last 2000m workout. If I had been more patient, and run them a little easier, I would have done 4, but I'm being cautious since the race was just Sunday.

Uneventful run back to RunTex. Overall, 7 miles for the day, pace 8:40 including warmup and cooldown jogging. A good one! Did the full stretching regimen afterwards. My massage later today will possibly be a painful experience. My lower leg muscles, front and back, are sore, as are my quads, from the race. But better to suffer a little during that therapeutic massage in order to speed the healing process.