It’s another cloudy morning in Lansing, but this morning I wasn’t in the mood to let anything short of a thunderstorm (with lightning!) keep me from running. The vacation is officially over.
I threw on my blue coordinated running outfit and reflective vest and was good to go. My plan was just a straight run for about an hour (I guess, given what I learned this week, it could be a tempo run or an “easy” run) but within the first two minutes I knew that it just wasn’t going to go down that way. Intervals. It had to be intervals.
I warmed up for five minutes. During that time, my workout came to me: one-minute hard efforts with varying amounts of recovery between each one. I gave myself three minutes after the first sprint and then kept it in a range from 30 seconds of recovery to two minutes. It’s amazing how quickly the scenery goes by when you run really fast for a minute every so often. It felt like I was being fast forwarded through my run, which I have to say is not an altogether unpleasant feeling.
The hard workout was over just shy of the 41-minute mark as I learned when I tried to do one last 30-second effort and was completely denied by my legs. “Absolutely not,” they said. “Are you kidding?” “Fine, fine,” I thought, and “cooled down” for the next four minutes. 6.11 miles. Not bad.
This interval workout was definitely had some improvements from last week’s. I was more aware of my pace and tried to stay fast even when I was recovering from the intervals. It definitely worked: I brought my average pace down to a 7:22, which was great considering my first mile was an 8:00. My legs were also actually tired by the end. I finished the main interval set by pairing one-minute intervals with decreasing recovery times: 1:30, 1:00, :45, :30, and :15. That last set was the biggest challenge of the workout, and I think it’s definitely something I could incorporate into more of my runs. Even though I chose to do that particular “ladder” with the recoveries, my brain was still going, “WAIT! No! Not ready! Fifteen seconds, are you kidding?” I still pulled off that last minute-long effort. Overall, I feel like I’m finally getting an idea of what a hard workout for me actually is. Win.
Something else also happened during my run today: the world righted itself and the giant void in my soul from the last three days was filled. I don’t know how it is for other people, but when I don’t run, nothing is quite the same and nothing is quite right. It was pretty much three days of that feeling you get when you walk into a room and can’t remember why you came in or what you were looking for, but you know that something is missing. Except I did know. Even martial arts class wasn’t the same! I just can’t help it. Running is just my thing. Plus, when I don’t run I can’t think of all the perfect things to say to choice individuals who irritate me, and that’s just sad.
In other words, it’s a good day. No, a GREAT day—because tonight we’re going to see Jim Gaffigan! And tomorrow I get to go home!
Happy Friday!