Hitting the Cruise Button

I ran my threshold workout today in the form of cruise intervals.  3k-2k-1k w/ rests of 1-minute per km of the previous repeat.  (i.e. 3 minutes, and 2 minutes)  This workout was originally scheduled for Friday, so here's a quick recount of the events that forced me to push out.

Wednesday:  The day after the hill repeats.  I had an easy 5-miler on the schedule as a recovery, but for whatever reason I not only had little soreness, but I actually felt very good during the run.  And that "save it for Friday" that I mentioned to myself on the way out the door seemed to get thrown out the window by the second half.  The last two miles were 6:14 and 6:16, and I was very comfortable the whole way - tough to explain how I felt that good the day after hills.  However, a short time afterwards I got a cramp in my left calf (probably due to lack of hydration again - ah that beer and running thing!) and the tightness stuck w/ me for a couple of days.

Thursday:  Thankfully I already had an appointment scheduled w/ the CMT Thursday afternoon.  The morning 5-miler was horrible, I felt like I was crawling - the calves were very heavy.  The CMT dug in there pretty good meaning the Friday threshold work was going to get bumped to Saturday to allow the muscles to recover.

Friday:  Another 5-miler, but this time the calves felt much better by the 2nd half of the run - I was ready for the faster work on Saturday.

Saturday:  I had been running my cruise intervals slightly under 5:40 pace thus far, but that was for 1km, 1-mile, and 2km repeats.  Today I had a 3km on the schedule and I wasn't sure where in the realm of "comfortably hard" a 5:40 pace 3k would put me.  I figured I'd just try to hit a few 85 second laps and see how I felt midway through.

As is usually the case w/ me - when I don't do a proper warm up (meaning 2 x 200m after the mile jog) the first part of the first rep tends to be slow, so when I came through lap #1 in 1:28 I didn't think too much of it.  However, when the 2nd lap was also a 1:28, I knew I had to pick it up.  I quickly found my 3:30/km pace and pretty much held that the rest of the way clocking the 3km in 10:37.  (5:41 pace)  Clearly, the slow laps in the beginning cost me the sub-5:40.

I was good and warmed up for the 2km and that one came in at 6:59.  (5:37)

Just 1000m to go.  With the longer runs already in the bag, this one felt like a simple run around the block - 3:24.  (5:28)

A pretty good workout, and no trouble from the calves.  I'm hoping that remains the case after tomorrow's long run, but I'll have to wait and see.

Training:

Wed, 3/11:  5-miles @ 6:36 pace.

Thurs, 3/12: 4.6-miles @ 6:58 - really felt sluggish, calves were very heavy.  Appt w/ CMT in afternoon.

Fri, 3/13:  5-miles @ 6:55 - calves felt tight in the beginning, but much better by the end.

Sat, 3/14:  6-miles including 3k-2k-1k (10:37-6:59-3:24)