Well, I’m sure that my interval spin class didn’t really help me out this morning, but I had a good time anyway. I first parked at South 1st and ran out to W. 11th St - 2.6 miles at a 9:45 average pace. I tried pretty hard to keep it slow, which turned out to be fairly easy, especially as I was carrying a 32oz water bottle in one hand. After arriving I was nicely warmed up, so I took the time to stretch out carefully before doing my hill repeats.

This is a .66 mile course full of relatively steep uphills and downhills. There’s nothing that would be considered truly flat, and only a few spots of gentle hills for recovery. You start at W. 11th and Meriden, running West downhill until the street ends. Then you turn left and run up Possum Trot - a steep uphill, a relatively flat intersection, then a longer, slightly shallower uphill. At the end there’s a gentle downhill, but by then I need it for recovery and can’t take any real advantage of it. Left onto W. 7th for some gently rolling hills, then left again onto Meriden for the steepest stretch. You run downhill first - I don’t know what the grade is, but its about as steep as I can comfortably handle; believe me, you can fly down there. Then its a grinding uphill back to the starting point.

This was only the second time I did this workout. Before, I had done three reps. Today I did five, with 2-3 minutes recovery between each one (depending on traffic).

Time: 5:22 - 5:18 - 5:12 - 5:14 - 5:21
Pace: 8:08 - 8:02 - 7:53 - 7:56 - 8:06

I’m happy with those times. By the end, I was definately not getting a comfortable recovery - which is good from a workout perspective - and that final uphill felt really hard. I walked about a half mile back to the trail to better recover, then ran back to my car at the 9:45 pace again (with a very mild speed up to 9:15 for the last mile).

The extra distance made for a really good warmup/cooldown, but I’m not sure I’d do it again just because it really added to the amount of time this particular workout took. Still, I feel physically tired but mentally energized, which is a great way to start the day!

Popularity: 1%