Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Tough Workout

This week I was expecting to have a tempo run assignment from my coach, but he decided to mix it up a bit. Instead of a 4 mile tempo run, he suggested "spicing things up a bit" and run one mile at recovery pace, one mile at tempo pace, and repeat that four times for a total of eight miles. I was going to be in Flint, MI for my tempo run day, and there is a cemetery near our hotel that has a flat one mile loop, perfect for my run. Unfortunately our company changed hotels that we use. I researched the new hotel online and saw that it was within one block of the Flint River Trail. The website had pictures of smiling runners and families on bikes, and I thought, perfect! I should have known that what looks good on the internet isn't always the same in real life. The first 3/4 mile was as advertised, but then the path crossed a very busy road with no crosswalk. Then, about 1/4 mile after that, the neighborhood became bad, bad, very bad. We're talking burned out, boarded up buildings, two-toned cadillac pimpmobiles, and lots of gang graffiti. Then, I saw that the trail went under the Interstate bridge, a perfect hiding place for someone wanting to use my IPhone and Garmin to finance their drug habit. I quickly turned around and picked up my pace. For the rest of my run, I just ran back and forth along the safe 3/4 mile stretch.

As far as the run itself goes, I'm giving myself a solid C. For me, recovery pace is 12:00 miles, and a good tempo run pace for 4 miles is 10:30. The weather was a little warm, 80 degrees, with high humidity and no breeze. Here's how I did:

Mile 1 - 11:56
Mile 2 - 10:24
Mile 3 - 12:00
Mile 4 - 10:24
Mile 5 - 12:13 (heat is starting to get to me)
Mile 6 - 10:34
Mile 7 - 12:17
Mile 8 - First half mile in 5:22, then I died and walked the last half mile in 8:00

Can't wait to see what coach has in store for me next week!

6 comments:

David Ray said...

Good job with a tough workout!

Jessica said...

glad you didn't have to succumb to financing any drug dealers! Glad you are feeling better too!

Kelly said...

Ah, that website IS deceivingly cheerful.

johnmaas said...

If the coach would have known the area better, he could have recommended easy pace through the nice part of town and then run like hell through the tough neighborhood. Ghetto fartleks...

JojaJogger said...

Ghetto fartleks!....LOL!

Jess said...

Nice pace for such a hard workout in such heat!