Week 9 – Key Run Workout #2

Still over 80°F as I made my way to First Landing State Park for tonight’s workout, but at least there was a slight breeze which made the conditions slightly more bearable. The plan for Key Run Workout #2 was an easy mile to warm up, 4 miles at 6:23 pace (Mid Tempo pace) and an easy mile to cool down.

After a pleasant warm up, I picked up the pace and ran a 6:26 first mile, slightly slower than goal pace, but nothing to worry about. After an emergency bathroom break I continued at the same pace and got to the halfway stage with a 6:23 mile.

As always seems to happen when I make an abrupt turn, the speed/distance on my Garmin 305 for the third mile seemed slightly off. I know I was maintaining the same pace, but for some reason the split turned out to be 6:43. With one mile to go, and feeling quite tired now, it was just a question of hanging on and hoping for the best. As the beeper sounded to signal the end of the 4 MT miles, I was happy to see another 6:23 mile.

I walked for a while to catch my breath and then slowly jogged back to the car to stretch, hydrate and reflect on my workout. It took a lot out of me, but that’s probably due to Sunday’s 1/2 Marathon and Tuesday’s track workout. Now I have to get myself together for a 20 mile long run on Saturday morning – should be a challenging run!