The Miler...not

I met Diego at Col Z. Magruder High School today in what was supposed to be an "all out" mile. The weather was in the high 20s when I woke and only climbed to mid-30s for the race. It was chilly, but there was little wind. We were going to help pace one of Nate Timm's guys through a 2:10 800m. He had 4 other guys who were set to run 2:20. So seven of us towed the line. Due to a JV Women's Lax game, we were "rewarded" (?) with some "pre-game workout" tunes. To me, it made our event more festive - anything to make this feel more like a race.

Nate yelled "go" and Diego surged to the front (as was the plan). We hit 400m in 64 and I felt great. The high schooler surged past but Diego motioned to not go. So I stayed on Diego's heals. I felt as if we were slowing and the schoolboy was getting faster. I did not want to roll through 800m in 2:07 so I followed in Diego's wake. My legs started to feel heavy at 600m, but I figured all this would soon be over so I just kept chugging away. I hit 800m in 2:11. SHIT! Got to get back on the train. Diego was just ahead and we soon began to pick up the pace...or so I thought. My legs felt pretty beat when I hit 1200m in 3:18. My cardio felt fine, and I felt strong, but I couldn't dig any deeper. I tried like hell to kick, but really came up blank. I ended up running 4:28 for the full mile. Diego was 4:22-23 (where I was hoping to be). He paced me fine, but I just couldn't go with him. I think it was a combination of the cold weather (both our throats ached from the cold air), heavy legs from Wednesday's tough O2 debt workout and most importantly me not having any guts today. I should be able to run at least 4:25 even with a rusty hatchet lodged into my thigh. I am in much better shape than this (even without training for this specific distance) so today was kind of a bad day. I won't really harp on it too much. It was a bad day and that is that. They happen. Get over it and move on. I've been racing great this year (better than ever) so I just need to stay on track and attack like hell next Saturday.

The silver lining is that I never felt very tired with respect to my cardio. My legs lacked some kick, but I did feel strong throughout. I felt as if I could have slugged my way through another 4 laps (in 70s) and PR'd for 2 miles today...but that wasn't the workout and that wasn't the plan.

This is my last workout (with the exception of some 200m strides on Tuesday) before the 5k. having broken 15 last weekend, I have that off my chest...but I do want to give this race distance a good go with some tapered legs.