Got My Mojo Workin'

I'm on a roll.

Here's some music for the soundtrack of this bloop. You can play it in the background as you read.

After Saturday's surprise 10K PR (race report here if you missed it), I felt pretty darn good! No post-race soreness or fatigue. Still beaming with the afterglow of my result. Normally I would take a day off after a 10K, but I went back out Sunday to add some miles, since I am building up for marathon base-building. The idea was to take it slow and just get some junk miles in.

I did my local wood chip trail run. 8.4 miles, of which 7.7 of it was on wood chips. Mostly flat, soft, easy day, right? I wore my trail shoes. I figured to keep it around 9 minute pace, or at least above 8:30. Well, I felt just fine from the get-go. No tired legs. And I tend to just speed up if it feels good...


Cruising along feeling good! Hooweee! When I feel this good, I tend to start making big plans. Thinking I should add MORE miles, MORE races, faster PRs...I am invincible!



Monday I took a day off, and Tuesday I did my usual group run, which normally becomes a progression run as I chase others in our group. On this day however, other people were doing the chasing. Back on a hard surface and wearing my Hoka Cliftons, I again felt surprisingly good from the start, and just let the ponies run...



And I wasn't really working that hard either! A good comfortable hard, but some left in the tank. More endorphins and happy rainbow thoughts. Cruising those last two miles at 7:30 I thought, "Maybe I can do a whole marathon at this pace - shoot for 3:20 - why not?" and had a big smile on my face all through the post-run beer and dinner with the group.

 

Still felt good on Wednesday. Legs still feel fresh somehow. So I headed to the track for my interval group. I was ready to throw down whatever they wanted to throw at me. And it was a doozy of a workout! Total of 8 miles with 4 miles of it very fast!  Here are the deets for you track nerds.

3 lap warmup
4 laps of straights and curves, meaning fast strides for 8x100 with jogging curves
800 at 10K pace - 3:23. 1 lap jog
3x400 at 1 Mile pace with 100 jog - 88, 87, 85. 1 lap jog
1200 at 5K pace - 4:49 (6:25 pace) 1 lap jog
4x400 at 1 Mile pace with 100 jog - 91, 91, 87, 88. 1 lap jog
800 at 5K pace - 3:11
3 lap cooldown

So, 7 fast 400s (sub-6 pace), 2 800s and a 1200, plus 8x100. It was fun. I felt like bailing for the last several but I kept walking up to the line and knocking them down. Beast mode.

Still feeling good, but tired, so I'm thinking I'll take two days off before I tackle a long weekend. For 12/13/14 I'm thinking 12.13 goat miles Saturday and 14 miles on Sunday.

Life is good.