5K fartlek

I went to the track this morning to do the workout, and guess what? Despite the fact that it was above freezing, the track was super icy from the night's snow/rain mix. Bummer. I had already had a rough morning, finding out upon waking that my beloved grandma (in photo, with Calvin, in 2005) had died last night (expected, as she had end-stage Alzheimer's, good that she is not suffering, but hard for those of us who will miss her). Plus I was running late...so I decided to bag it and try to get in the workout later in the day. I have cross-training tomorrow so I figured it wouldn't mess anything up.

So, after a difficult day at work due to missing grandma and making plans for travel, etc., I finally managed to escape while my restriction digests were incubating, at 3 pm. Yeah, we have lab meeting at 3 pm on Thursdays, so I played hooky. My boss is on call this week in the hospital, and we were having journal club and I hadn't read the paper. It was no big deal to miss one, so I just decided I needed the exercise more than I needed journal club. Good call. I felt SO much better after working out. But, I am getting ahead of myself.

The high school cross-country/track team was just heading out for a workout when I arrived at the track (I chatted with their coach a bit when they got back, after my workout). The weather was so nice - 43F (6C) and cloudy and calm. Ahhhhh, warm for February. I'm loving it! Tights and a long-sleeved shirt were perfectly adequate, and I even pushed up the sleeves on my shirt. I warmed up for a few times around the track; I'd already racewalked to my car from work (about 1km) so a couple times was enough to get nice and warm, with some strides thrown in. I could tell on the strides that my muscles were in for a workout!

I started off well, though, surprising myself. I figured I'd be happy with anything under 30 minutes today, since I'd had a layoff of a month since the 50K. But I was faster than that! My first 1km was 5:26, and then I did 2:55, 2:46, 2:56, 2:47, 2:59, 2:48, 2:59, and 2:48 to finish with 28:29! Wow! My legs were tired, I was breathing really hard and working it all the way, but still, I'm pleased. That's my 3rd fastest 5K fartlek ever, and so I feel like I'm starting off well. I'm optimistic that I can attain the All-American standard for the 15K in May, which is 1:26:37 for my age group.

Total: 28:29 for 5:42/km (9:10/mile) with ave HR 163.

Garmin connect data here.

I did go back to work and run my digests on a gel and finish up a few more things before heading home for the day :).