The "Hard" workout

When D gave me the schedule for January, the last weekend of the month had the workout that he labeled "hard". He told me he or one of the other guys would run it with me. It was 7 total miles: 2x 2.1 mile repeats at a 7:50 pace (with about 5 mins of rest between), plus a 2 mi warm up and 1 mi cool down. He told me it should be hard, and that we'd use it as a test to see where I was.

Despite the craziness of the end of last week, I planned on doing this run Friday, and I sent D a text just to clarify the rest time before I headed over by his house to run the loop where the 2.1 miles would be uninterrupted. He sent me a message back, and said he'd run with me.

Um, that made me nervous -- I had planned on doing it myself, and running with someone as fast as him makes me feel inadequate, even when he does nothing to make me feel that way. BUT, he was pretty adament that he'd run with me, so I drove to his house, and off we went.

We ran the warm up slightly faster than I normally would have, but I was comfortable. Just before we started the first 2.1 mi repeat, he stepped off to use the bathroom and said he'd catch up. I began the repeat, and about a minute into it, I realized I was too fast and I slowed. D caught up to me and asked why I slowed. I told him I was too fast. We hit the first .5 mi mark, and D said "perfect" and told me I was not allowed to look at my watch anymore. I knew that to mean he would take over the pacing from there. Uhoh.

We hit the first mile and he said, "perfect" again. In fact, he'd repeat that at every .5 mi mark. The first mile was 7:41. Faster than the plan, but I kind of figured we'd hang around the 7:45 pace anyway. That was the last time I knew what the paces were until we were done.

We finished the first 2.1 mi repeat, and I was breathing hard. I was super conscious of it, too. When you're running next to someone who ran a 2:29 marathon and you're breathing hard in a 2 mile repeat at a 7:45 pace, you feel silly. I apologized to him as I began the 5 min rest, and he said, "You're supposed to be breathing hard. You've been running easy paces. This isn't an easy pace. Now do whatever you want for 5 minutes. Walk as much as you want. Get ready for the next one."

I shuffle-jogged for the 5 minutes, D ran a mile-ish, and then he slid alongside me and said, "You recovered?" I said I guess so, and off we went for the second repeat. He said the first .5 mi would be tough, and by the time I was done the first mile I'd be cruising. Again, at each .5 mi mark, he said "perfect" as he clicked our splits. As we began the second mile, D told me to pick up my arms and use my knees. I adjusted my stride as he directed, and whoa -- the running got a little easier.

Don't get me wrong - this was a tough workout. At one point I thought I might puke, and the cold 20mph winds were not friendly, but I did it. And when we finished, D told me our paces.
7:41, 7:39, 7:37, 7:23.

Holy moly! He said my last .5 mile was a 6:50ish pace! Whoa.

It was a hard workout. He said it would be, and it was. Not killer-hard, but challenging-hard. I was confident I could have done the 7:50 pace repeats on my own -- it would be work, but I could do it. But having him pace me and push me faster was fantastic. I'm lucky he has been so helpful with this training. I wasn't sure he'd be as involved, and I'm happy with what he's giving me.

I got my February schedule yesterday and there's a long run in a couple weeks that he said would be telling -- a 16 mile run with 10 at MP.

Like I did when I saw the "hard" workout, I chuckled at how incredible it sounds, and then I got excited for the challenge.