Treadmill Surprise!

Miles:5
Time:34:50
Pace: 6:58

So, today was supposed to be my last planned work out before the race on the 21st. I was wanting to do something longer, tempo like, for my last work out. Useually as you near the race, your last workouts become shorter, and you focus on speed. This is because as you begin in the training you are concentrating on base and endurance, and then it evolves to quickness and anarobic improvement, provided the base is there. Well - not having done as many "workouts" as I would have liked during the training, I still felt I needed one more tempo-style workout under my belt. Besides, I figure the more along the longer type workouts the better for the marathon, if I were to have to choose speed or endurance. Also, having some good mile repeats and 2 mile repeats under my belt, I think I should be okay - besides, I'm aiming for 8 min pace roughly for this marathon so not too much work needed to generate that kind of turnover.

Anyway, I was tossing around some ideas - 2 x 4 miles, 2 x 3 miles with a quick mile in between sets, a steady 6-7 mile tempo around 6:30 pace, or a progressive tempo starting around 7 min pace and dropping the time each mile of the non stop run. Then I began to feel under the weather on Monday.

On Tuesday as I was not feeling well, I figured I would set on a 6 mile tempo run at 6:30 pace, maybe a little quicker the second half if I was feeling okay - since I was feeling kind of sick and needed to probably concede to a "moderate" workout, as opposed to killing myself.

Well today I went to the Dr. and he advised me not to run, although I didn't have strep and he said I was just worn down and had a virus. Also, it was 50MPH winds outside and freezing so running outside - if I was going to do it - would probably not be good for my health. So...after popping a few Iburprofin, I drove to David's and we went to the YMCA after he talked me into at least getting in a few miles on the treadmill.

I felt good from the beginning. Having the ability to dictate your pace manually on the machine I started at 8 min pace for a couple mins then moved it down to uppper 7's and 730 pace the first mile and a half. After 3 miles I was moving along low 7's to 7 min pace, and the 4th mile I was dropping the pace in the 6 minute range - the last mile I got under 6 min pace - as fast as 5:22 pace for a couple mins, before finishing my last minute at 8 min pace.

So it wasn't what I wanted to do with my plan - but all things considered it was encouraging and rewarding.