Favorite

I don't know why this is one of my favorite runs, but it is. Run for 2 miles, run as fast as possible for 800m, recover with a slow run for 15 minutes, and then blast off again for another 800m, and slowly recover the rest of the 6-mile total. I told my Virtual Running Buddy this week that if you don't feel you're going to puke by the end of the second interval then you're not doing it right. I was almost there today. I like this one because really, how often do you get to run as fast as you can? It's almost like being a kid again - it just hurts more when you're done.

I didn't keep too close an eye on my pace during the intervals but I did see once that I got down to 5:46. The Garmin said my fastest pace was 4:47, but that's pretty much wrong. The difference between past runs like this and today is that I'm not in peak shape right now. I'm doing okay, but nothing like the year of four marathons.

I was also thinking how most of the times I remember doing this particular run are on a night like tonight, where the sun is setting early and there's a chill in the air. Guess that's a reflection of doing several late November or early December races. One more long run on Saturday and then the taper really begins to take hold.