Time to Get Serious

1/4 run pace 50 min on Sal's Branch Trail @ Umstead

This was supposed to be a pace run consisting of a 20 min easy run, followed by 5x1 min repeats at 10k pace with 1 min recovery in between and a final 20 min easy run.  Things were going pretty well until I caught up to another runner on the trail at the start of my repeats.  At first he seemed to be going much slower than I, but he started to speed up the closer I got.  So his pace ended up somewhere between my repeats and my recoveries.  I didn't want to have to keep passing him, so I ended up balling out for several minutes until I passed the trailhead, figuring he was wrapping up his run(and he was).  By this time my oxygen debt was much too high to jog off, so I found myself trying to walk and then do another repeat followed by another bit of walking.  I probably walked no more than 2 minutes total, but it was demoralizing and frustrating to have screwed up my workout that way.  I did manage to get things back together enough to finish out my 20 minutes of running, although there were times I felt like I was barely moving.  This was an important run just for me to get through the 30 minute barrier.  I'm used to running 30 minutes but that is generally where I call it quits.  My legs felt like they weren't going to recover at first but eventually I got through the wall and on to the next one until the run was done.  I walked out the rest of the trail, which was a bad idea, as I started to get super cold on the walk (47 degrees) to the point where I almost started running again, but with my easy run tomorrow, I really want to stick to the program in the hopes of avoiding any possibility of injury.  I could feel it in my foot toward the end of the run, but I feel pretty good right now.  The real test are the first few steps out of bed the next day.

I should add that my cold is much better than it was on my last run, but I still have a ways to go.  I was able to clear my nose during the run without too much trouble.  I did have a coughing fit in the car on the way home, but hopefully I will continue to get better.