Last week's midweek run with the youngsters from the high school XC team made me realize that I can push myself and run a fairly fast pace (i.e. 7:00/mi-ish). That revelation inspired me to incorporate some tempo runs into my schedule, especially since I need a 4:45 marathon time (on my very hilly course) to qualify for Mountain Mist 50k. Today I had a 6-7 mile run scheduled with about 5 of that at about LT. During my warm up I spotted the XC team heading down the roadside trail, meaning I had a target. They were heading out a couple miles to do some hill repeats. It felt good to catch and pass right by them. At about the 1/2 way point of my tempo run, I decided to wait for the XC guys and go ahead and join them for a hill workout (I need it for the monkey!).
Hill Workout
The hill was not very formidable (that's west central FL for you) but it was sand and got the heart rate up. We did four sets (over and back - about 0.5 mi) at around 6:00 pace. This was all at about 4:30pm on a very humid day. Throw in a couple sets of push-ups in between sets and it was a really good tough workout. There is something about hard workouts that I enjoy. In the heat of it when spits slingin out of my mouth and sporadic grunts give me extra power (grunting = atleast 15% power increase - try it :D), I just get into that groove and push. It's rewarding - reminds me of my football days.
The fellas ran back with me a ways for a cool down before their coach picked them up. Then I did the rest of the 3.5mi run home solo - a not-so-cool down. A good strong day overall. Three-four mile regular aerobic run tomorrow and then a planned 16miler Saturday.
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