Blog, I am neglecting you

I have a 5k on Saturday, so I was kinda excited to do today's VO2 Max run of 8 miles w/ 5x600 at 5k pace. I mapped out an old course on mapmyrun that would end up at the track. Fleet Feet is about 1/4 mile from the track and I needed some more gels, hence my motivation to get away from home and my usual route. Because I couldn't decide whether to park my car at Fleet Feet and start the run from there or park at the school and run a little more, I ended up running a full 7 miles before I even made it to the track. I parked at the school thinking I wouldn't feel like running anymore after the track workout, but Fleet Feet ended up being farther from the school than I thought. (I mapped the run starting from Fleet Feet). I ran the 7 at marathon pace which didn't give me the freshest of legs for the 600s, but hey, if I can run 7 at mp then 5x600 at about 9:30 avg., I must be making some inroads, right?

The track was pretty clear of snow. Not so the sidewalks. Sometimes I imagined I was Mardi climbing over piles of dirty, slushy, plowed snow. Only I was the slow version. ;)

I'm trying to think of a route where I can warmup with 3 miles ending at the track, then I could do the 3 miles again to finish up. That way, at least I stand a fighting chance of hitting a 5k pace of 8:30 or under on the 600s. My last 5k was June 16 with a finish of 25:59. That's faster than McMillan predicts based on my best 10k, 1/2 and marathon times. Of course, I'll try to beat it!

Brick

Ah snow! But the show must go on both for the dancer and the runner. Scott and I got up well before the snow started this morning and got to the gym for my favorite spinning class. It's led by the owner of the gym who is an Ironman finisher and former member of the US Duathlon team. (Who knew there was such a team)? I can completely relate to her method of leading the class which was anaerobic intervals this morning designed to increase our VO2 Max over time. I managed to get my HR up to 171 for each interval. It's not easy for me to reach my lactate threshold during spinning, but in this class I come my closest.

The snow started to come down with a vengence to match the effort of the spinning class, and I decided to test the snow worthiness of my BMW by staying another 40 minutes to run on the treadmill. Actually 4 miles in 37 minutes. I mixed it up each .5 mile, alternating between 0-1-2% grade and 9:20, 9:05, 8:49, and 8:20 minute miles. I wanted to make sure my legs were loosened up after the tough high-intensity spin class.

Two ballet performances today. I think the snow may melt by tonight. I hope so, because my car is not meant for snow.