mile repeats

Miles: 7.5
Workout: 6 x 1600
Target Pace: 6:30's ('litte' less than marathon pace)

It had been roughly 10 months since I had last run on a track. Last year David, Oelz, and I did some mile repeats - significantly faster - as a tune up for Cooper River Bridge Run. I ended up having a work conflict and couldn't run Cooper that year, so that was pretty much the end of my "training." Obviously training has resumed since, and with the marathon a little over a month away - I hope that this visit to the track doesn't again signal any kind of "end" to this season's training with my knee beginning to flair up the day prior.

(Don't worry folks, I'm generally an optomistic person, but it's also good to give the blog audience some 'drama')

With the left knee beginning to hurt for the first time on Wednesday's run - today was the first time I felt soreness when I wasn't running. I could feel a slight pain in just walking around putting stress on the knee, so I was kind of nervous about the run/workout.

David and I met at Myers Park for some mile repeats. The goal was to do 6 mile repeats a little slower than marathon pace: 6:30ish pace, with about 1:30 rest/jog between each one. This is more than a minute slower pace per mile that I probably will be going in the marathon, but for a workout it seemed about the right kind of target. We warmed up for about a half mile, and the knee immediatly was sore from the get-go. Nothing too painful to stop at this point, so I thought I'd start the workout and give it a good test. 6:30-45 was the target pace - for both of us for the first one; David was planning on running around 6:00 for the rest of his since he is tailoring his approach for his half marathon in early March.

I'll simply say this about the knee. The pain remained throughout. It was bareable, dull, and otherwise constant. It didn't effect my stride or gait, and the discomfort did not increase over time through the running, so I decided I was going to complete the task for the day.

Splits were: 6:35, 6:35, 6:36, 6:28, 6:29, 5:28

The first 5 I was feeling fine, and had to deliberatly hold myself back to stay on pace. David was out in front running his 6:00 pace so I was just cruising along. Obviously, I felt good on the last one, so after going through the first lap in 1:28(just under 6 min pace), I decided to just go after it a little bit. I through a couple surges in, and ran hard. The mile felt really good, and it was fun to feel fast again, especially since it had been about 10 months!

The knee hurt while chillin' out at home during the night, so I iced it and tried to walk gingerly up and down the stairs. Stairs really are not fun right now. If I had to guess what my injury is, I'd say it's probably your typical runner's knee. So with that, Ice, Ibuprofin, and Friday no running and probably Saturday too.

Hope to have a post about a succesfull long run on Sunday!