Battle of Wind

My goal for today was the same as Thursday of last week: 3 miles at Goal Pace (8:35)and 3 miles at Tempo (8:10). I headed out along a 3 mile loop around the neighborhood and encountered a mighty head-wind. I struggled a couple of times but managed to hit my target pace, finishing the 3 miles at 25:23 (an average pace of 8:27).

To alleviate the wind resistance, I thought I would run the same 3 mile loop in the opposite direction for the 2nd set. Little did I know that this would make absolutely no difference whatsoever. In fact, I think the wind picked up a little for I struggled even more despite my efforts. I finished the 3 in 25:33 (an average pace of 8:31).

With the warm-up & cool-down, the days total came out to 9 miles.

To recap, Tuesday was a speed day...

1 mile warmup
2 x 1 mile at 8:00
3 x 800 at 3:45
2 x 1 mile at 8:00

1.5 mile cool-down with the kiddos outside (8 miles) - so fun to run with them! :D

My original plan was to run the 1 mile intervals at 7:20 and the 800s at 3:30. But from my experience last week, I just can't sustain those paces. Today was by all means still grueling but it was also achievable. I would much rather finish feeling exhilarated and feeling as though I accomplished something, rather than exhausted and feeling defeated.

In other news, I came across a fun little training log for kids... Happy Feet, Healthy Food. Though I loved it, I am also very creative and enjoy using the computer, so I used it as a sort of template to create my own. The kids now have their very own training log - each personalized to their interests with photos of them being active (Taekwondo, Swimming, Running, etc.). Sweetie helped come up with healthy snack ideas - we both had a lot of fun putting it together. She plans to run the Eugene Marathon again this year, so I try to provide opportunities for her to run as often as possible. :D