Saturday, March 23rd, 2013

11 miles with 5 mile repeats.
Warmed up for 1 then went right into it, with the desired times/efforts to be 2 x 5:30, 2 x 5:20, 1 x 5:15, with 6:30 mile recoveries in between. Seemed like an easy enough task, if it was on flat-ish roads with no wind. Of course, this was in Truro, where the roads are anything but flat and the wind was strong and cold.
First was 5:29 and was easy as could be. 2nd was 5:33, but included .25 across a sand dune, so very happy with that. The 3rd was mostly uphill and the 5:29 I got felt more like a 5:05 and it cooked me pretty good for the 4th, which became a 5:28 as a result. Still, with each, I was a good 25-30 sec. ahead of Scott, so the effort was there.
The 5th, at 9 miles, was to be mostly steep uphill with a nasty headwind, so I just dug in to see what I could make of it, knowing that a 5:15 was highly unlikely. I went strong up every hill and ended with a 5:28, which I can't be bummed about. The efforts were there, the speeds were decent, but the times were altered by the conditions and I just have to be OK with that. I never lost form and went strong to the end. If I could have closed NB that strong, I'd have ended up closer to 1:11, so it's a good sign of where things are.
Looking forward to the 22 miles tomorrow.