Wheeeeeeeeeeee! First Workout Back!

My workout plan for today was:  warm up 2 miles, see how far I can get at 6:30 pace, cool down to 10 miles total.

 

6:30ish was my tempo pace pre-injury, and I ran a solid 10 mile tempo in 1:04:11 (6:25 average pace) at the beginning on January (that was also my 10 mile PR!).  With today being my first hard run back, I really didn’t know what would happen. My main objective was to set a baseline on where I was and then set workout goals from there.  Even so, I was a bit scared of this workout.  I knew I could run 3 miles at 6:30 pace, but what if that was all I could do?  Would I ever get back to 10 miles in training at the pace, and racing a half marathon at that pace or faster?  My half PR is 1:24:33 (6:27 pace) and I would sure like to better it this year!

 

My training buddy Missy is racing a half on April 2, so I talked her into doing this run with me to determine a solid half goal for herself.  She was putting down some really nice runs the whole time I was injured, so I had a lot of confidence in her nailing this workout, but zero confidence in myself.  She was the exact opposite – without confidence in herself but thinking I could do it.

 

We spent most of our warm up discussing how terrified we were!  I love workouts like this but not knowing where I was at or having a specific mileage goal really threw me.  I told myself it wasn’t a big deal, and I would just stop when I couldn’t do it anymore and then improve next time.  Full disclosure:  I really wanted to get in at least 6 miles at 6:30 pace to know I could still race a sub-40 10K. I also looked up the 8 mile tempo run I did 1 year ago, and I averaged 6:34 pace on it, so I knew if I could hit that it would be a good feeling.

 

We started off and I settled into what felt like tempo pace (I always aim for a half marathon pace feel).  I looked down at my Garmin and it was 6:20 pace, so I reigned it in a bit, but we came through the first mile in 6:25.  I hoped I didn’t regret that later, but the pace felt sustainable for several miles.

 

Mile 2 was 6:27, and mile 3 6:29.  I then told Missy that I was stoked I could do at least 4 under 6:30 pace!  I felt great but kept worrying it would hit me all of a sudden.  Mile 4 was 6:25 and at that point I felt good about going to 6 miles.  I think I got a little excited because mile 5 was 6:23, then back to 6:26 for mile 6.  At that point I knew that I was going to aim for 8 miles, and knocked out mile 7 in 6:26.  About 0.3 mile into mile 8 I looked down at my watch and saw my pace dragging to 6:45, and knew I needed to step it up to finish strong.  I pushed and in turn finished with a 6:23 8^th mile, for an average of 6:26 for 8.1 miles (I didn’t get stopped right at 8 so went to 8.1).

 

I stopped my Garmin and saved my data while walking and waiting for Missy.  When we met back up, she said she was going to slow the pace a bit and go for 10 miles.  I didn’t think I had much more in me, but I am also easily swayed and was on a runners high so I jumped back in with her.  After what I estimate to be about 45 seconds of walking (could’ve been a bit longer), I ran a 7:02 mile with her and continued on to start the 10^th mile around 6:45 pace.  She then asked if I could help her push the final half mile.  My initial answer was that I didn’t know if I had that much left, but then I decided I would try.  The last mile ended up being 6:26! The plus 2 made it this kind of workout: http://www.runnersworld.com/the-fast-lane/how-unstructured-runs-can-make-you-faster

 

Wahooooooo!  This was better than I expected and I am ecstatic about it!  I think this means that a spring half PR is not out of the question, and also that I am really close to where I was pre-injury (by some miracle).  It’s comforting to know that all of that cross-training wasn’t for naught.  I guess also that being off for 5 weeks isn’t THAT long, so I wouldn’t lose THAT much fitness.  My confidence was more what was lost, and I needed this workout to show me that I can still do it.  Let this be a lesson that often our minds limit us more than our bodies!

 

This also threw a possible change into my race plans.  Pre-injury, I was planning to run the Rock the Parkway Half in Kansas City on April 9.  As I’ve returned to running, I didn’t think I would have enough training in me to perform well there so decided I would not run it this year.  Well, now I think I might!  I am going to try a 10 mile tempo next week, and if that goes well I will be lining up at Rock the Parkway instead of the local 5K I was thinking of for that day! 

Tempo splits

Afterthought splits