Tuesday 4/21/15

Decided to take a shot at my first semi-workout this year. After failing to get to the track on Sunday, I really wanted to try to fit in some pick-ups this week, and today seemed like a good day for it. Weather was perfect along the Charles in the low 60s with very little wind. I did a 2.75 mile warm up at 6:15, then started rolling with 1 minute on / 1 minute off at 5:10/6:10. At this point in my progression, I would typically do 10 x 30 sec on/ 30 sec off, but I thought a minute would be much more comfortable since I wouldn't have to go into a full sprint. Since I was doing 1 minute pick-ups, the plan was to only do 7 and judge from there. Overall, the pick-ups went as well as could be expected. The first few felt smooth, but I slowed down during the offs after the first couple of pick-ups. During the pick-ups, I split 5:48 and 5:52. I felt like I could have pushed through a few more but made the decision to call it after 7 which ended up being a good idea. The remaining 4 miles of the run was a cool down. I felt nice and relaxed at 6:40 for the first 2 miles, but I had to slow down quite a bit for the last 2 miles as I started having stomach issues. As the great Jim Johnson once said: I'll live. 9 miles in 57:40.