Out Season: Week 5 - Wednesday Run In The Cold

This morning it was nice and toasty

The workout for today included

MS: 2 x 1/2 mile (3'), 1 x 1 mile (5') all @ TP/Z4/Hard. Remainder of run is how you feel, but try to accumulate more HMP/Z3/Mod-Hard time.


I headed out after trying to muster up the energy to get out of bed. My legs were a bit tired from the weekend training and the bike test yesterday. I took my AdvoCare product and was ready to hit the roads.

There is something about running early in the morning when it is pitch black out that I love. It is so calm and quiet that I find that the perfect way to start my day. I do listen to music, but that is drown out my breathing like a dog and my feet crushing the pavement.

One of the things that I have come to enjoy with this OS is the mindset of running for time vs. distance. It is so nice to just run and not worry about how many more miles I have. Instead when I run for time I find myself thinking of new paths and routes I can take to meet the time requirement. Anything pass the mainset feels like bonus points instead of dread.

I started with a 1.42 mile warmup getting to the road I wanted to be on for my first .5 Zone 4 run. I hit that .5 mile in 7:05 and it felt easy. I nailed the second one in 7:09 still feeling easy. My pace time 7:12 so I was running under by a few seconds which to me is good because it feels easy. Next up was the mile and I was at 7:09. I had to crank it up the last half mile as I started out climbing two long rolling hills. That was a good mental challenge.

At this point I still have about 26 more minutes of running so I tried to keep a decent pace for the next mile just to work on building up stamina in the Zone 2 -3 area. I hit the next mile at 7:37 which is just a shade under Zone 2. My Zone 3 time is 7:22 and I just could not muster that pace this morning. I did finish the last 2.5 miles at 7:46 which is just a tad slower than my Zone 2 of 7:40. To be honest I felt good maintaining this pace. I don't know if this is a good area to be running at......like if this is that grey area that you read about, but I know I was pushing at pace that was not overdoing it, but was still challenging me. My HR was high, but I don't always know how to gauge that because while running my breathing and cardio felt awesome! What was hurting were my leg muscles. They were very tight and my calf was super tight towards the end.

All in all, getting in 7.74 miles in one hour is awesome! I will take it and use that to continue to push my efforts in training. If I can stick to getting all workouts done and don't skip anymore I think I can chip away at the time and by the end of OS be running the second half of these runs in my Zone 3 like the workout suggests. The key is to do it right and slowly chip away at the time.

Time for coffee and warm shower to warm up. Have a great Wednesday.