Speed Workout, 8x400@5:20, 4x800@6:04 ... Tempo Workout 6@6:58

Despite the soupy conditions, I had a fairly good Speed Workout on Tuesday evening at the Pleasant Lea Middle School Track in Lees Summit, with my friend Jeff.  Jeff is a good Triathlete, multiple Half-Ironman and marathoner finisher, and really pushes me during long runs and Speed Work.  He's got a marathon this fall about the same time as the Chicago Marathon so we've been training together once or twice a week.  We got rain in KC all day Monday and Tuesday, and then it heated up, so it was pretty steamy at the track at for the workout.  Here's how the run went ...

Workout: Speed
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Pleasant Lea Middle School Track - Lee's Summit, MO
Weather: 82 degrees, 75% humidity, 7 mph wind

3 light miles earlier in the day before work
1 mile Warm Up
     400M - 1:20 (80 seconds & 5:20/mile) ... 1 minute rest after each 400M lap
     400M - 1:21 (81 seconds & 5:24/mile)
     400M - 1:19 (79 seconds & 5:16/mile)
     400M - 1:20 (80 seconds & 5:20/mile)
     400M - 1:21 (81 seconds & 5:24/mile)
     400M - 1:20 (80 seconds & 5:20/mile)
     400M - 1:19 (79 seconds & 5:16/mile)
     400M - 1:19 (79 seconds & 5:16/mile)
3 minutes rest
     800M - 3:02 (6:04/mile) ... 400M slow active recovery lap after each 800M
     800M - 3:02 (6:04/mile)
     800M - 2:59 (5:58/mile)
     800M - 3:04 (6:08/mile)
2 mile Cool Down               
11 miles total for Tuesday

We didn't run quite as fast as I would have liked on the 800's, but I was kinda struggling toward the end of the workout to keep pace due to the humidity.  It was like a friggin' sauna!  Plus my legs were still a little tight and sore after the race this weekend, a 16 miler at marathon pace on Sunday, and a leg strengthening workout yesterday.  But I pretty much hit my targeted times and felt good about decent about the workout overall.  While the evening workouts are always a little tougher because it takes me out of my comfort zone of morning running, probably the toughest part of the late workout is recovery.  When I don't get home until 8 pm from a workout, I usually can't get to sleep until about 10:30 pm.  Then it's back up at 4:30 am the next morning for recovery run, which always feels impossible when I start it.  But changing up things now and then will hopefully make me a stronger runner.

On Thursday in Omaha I ran my Thursday Tempo Run after a 9 mile slow recovery run on Wednesday.
Here are the splits from that workout ...

Workout: Tempo
Location: Omaha, NE
Weather: 64 degrees, 94% humidity, no wind

8:24,   7:52,   7:15,   7:14,   6:49,   6:53,   6:57,   6:45,   7:44,   8:41 - 10 miles total, 6@6:58

There were quite a few rolling hills in the area I ran, so I felt pretty decent about the workout overall.  I definitely didn't kill it, but I averaged a 6:58 for 6 miles fairly easily. So not bad.

I'm really making a conscience effort this marathon training cycle to not train too hard too early.  I am REALLY bad about peaking about 3-4 weeks before the marathon, and then basically feeling like I'm on a downhill slide the day of the marathon.  I know I'm capable of a lot more now, both in mileage and speed, but I'm trying to throttle back until about 7 weeks out, then I'll start making a fairly big push.  But for now I'm pretty happy with the way my training is going. Hope your running is going well too!
... be great today!