The First Fast Miles in February

I have been putting in more miles this year so far compared to 2005 but everything has been at a pretty lesisurely pace of 7:30-8:15. Last night I decided to add a little speed. I had done 10 miles on Tuesday night but it was all at a very a slow pace and my legs felt fresh enough to put in a solid workout.

The weather was cool and comforatble. I started off at about 7:45 pace and headed down to Main Street under the train station, followed Kelly drive past the falls bridge and I took off at the first mile marker. I had planned on running 4 miles straight at 6:20-6:40 pace but after the first mile in 6:25 I decided to split up three miles at pace with a slow half mile in between. Might as well take it a little easy, it was my first speed workout of the year.

I had on my "speed shoes" the Asics speedstars and it seems like just cannot get a good rythym down in these sneakers. My left foot, for whatever reason, will not land properly and I end up adjusting for it the entire time which makes me tighten up and gives me a shin split. I tried to ignore it and just let things flow. It didn't ruin my run it just was never comfortable. In any case the first mile at 6:25 felt pretty good. I did the second mile in 6:28 and that was with a slow turn around pjsut under the columbia bridge. For the third mile I decided not to look at my 1/4 mile splits and just run at what felt like tempo pace. I ended up with a 6:15 and really feel it was the right pace, i was breathing heavy but I easily could have kept going and got my breath back quickly after stopping. It seems these slow 8-10 mile runs several nights a week might be working, let's hope so.


Oh and by the way I put in 113 miles in January, thats 25 more miles than last January and I got off to a slow start putting in only 14 the first week. Not a huge number but a good number for January and hopefully and indication of the miles to come this year.