Happy Valentine's Day

As is now tradition, Reba and I take the morning off on VD and sleep in. After that she went to the gym and I went to the track.

4-5 x 1600 (w/ 400 recovery) were on tap for today. Goal time I set was between 5:40 and 5:45.

Legs didn’t feel any pep this morning, I was wondering how much of that came from last night’s quickie workout. Plus it was windy, meaning that I flew down the frontstretch and was fighting the headwind down the backstretch. I could come up with a few more excuses, but you can see where this is heading.

The first 1600 came in at 5:48. Each 400 split was 1:27. I felt this was all I had, and figured I’d live with it for today.

Second 1600 started like the first. First 800 split in 2:54. As I was wondering how many more 400’s I could hit in 1:27, the next 400 split came in 1:26. This one-second drop lit a fire. I thought I could get a faster 1600 time this time around, and sure enough the complete rep was in 5:44.

Third 1600 again started out with a 1:27 400 split and got faster each time around. Ran it in 5:40.

For the fourth I went all out and hit 5:39. This felt great.

Then I did a fifth. The reason I give myself the option of a fifth (besides being able to bag the last one) is so that I can run the fourth one all out and then see how I go on another one. Long story short, I started out slower but got stronger towards the end, and hit a 5:46.

I like to say that I never go to the track without learning something about myself. Today I learned that my body is in better shape than my head. I assumed that I’d be stuck in the high 5:40s on these reps and my legs begged to differ. Fortunately, I was smart enough to first get out of the way and then to jump on board. Now I feel there is room to push even harder. We’ll see.

11 miles total in 1:26:something. Returned to Reba's and had a crepes brunch that couldn't be beat.