On & Offs

With The Chicken Tender Runner in tow, I bombed to The Line this morning with the hopes of getting in an easy 10 (Monday is usually my "day off" or at least easy day). Dirk de Heer had other plans. After 35 minutes of peer pressure and being beaten with Dirk's wooden shoe, I caved and decided to run a workout he had devised. The man had some valid points - the weather was getting worse (again!) and we likely won't see the surface of a track (unless someone shovels it) for weeks. If we were going to get anything in, it might as well be today. I hesitated at first because my body felt tired from Sunday's long run and last week's high mileage, but the workout seemed as if it would be fairly easy. We ran 15 x 1 minute on/1 minute off from Pierce Mill back to The Line and were joined by the always Irish Patrick Murphy and the pick-up riding Dave Burnham. After each set of 5, we would break for 3-4 minutes, then continue. The first 5 felt quite easy. The second set was much tougher and I lost more and more ground to the Dutchman. I found myself leading a chase pack with PM and DB chomping at my heels. The last set was even tougher. I could tell I had gone out a little too hard in the earlier reps as my legs seemed to lose their swiftness. Dave (a fellow Bay State School Boy who went on to run 29:50 at Dartmouth) and I ran side by side until we got back to The Line. It was a very good workout and I'm glad we got it done. It's hard to guess how fast we were going, but it had to be around 70 sec 1/4 pace...maybe? 11.5 for the day.