Tres Cosas Jueves

1. Is it cold where you live? It's cold here. Okay, it's not. Sorry. It's supposed to be in the 70s today and it's actually supposed to be in the high 70s through the weekend. Yeah, not cold. Well, it's a little chilly in the mornings, and we did have wind on Wednesday which made it a little chilly. But we don't have several inches of snow or pounding sleet or anything like that.

There are things about where I live that I don't care for, namely the traffic. But when the rest of the country is having snow days, I'm just happy that I live here where the climate is very kind to us. It makes it easier to run. I don't know how runners who live in places like, oh I don't know?, Michigan, do it. Seriously. Ice and snow and sleet and hail and wind and blizzards? No thanks.

I'd hibernate.

2. Here's a cool workout I wanted to share. I did this one on Wednesday at the gym.

Start with a 20-minute warmup. Then run 15 minutes at half marathon pace, 10 minutes slightly faster, 10 minutes at 10K pace and then 5 minutes at 5K pace, with a 5-minute rest between each segment, and by rest run at or slower than the warmup pace or walk or both. I only did one of the 10-minute segments because I had a soccer game in the afternoon.

How my workout looked:

20 min - 10:21 pace (5.8)
15 min - 8:46 (6.8)
5 min - walking + 10:48 (5.7)
10 min - 8:21 - 8:00 (7.2-7.5)
5 min - walking + 10:48 (5.7)
5 min - 7:30 (8.0)

All together I ran 6.5 miles in about 1 hour 2 minutes. It was a challenging run but it didn't seem like it would be too bad. I like that. I wasn't intimidated by it because it broke down into really manageable segments, and the best thing is the breaks in between. It wasn't a run where you have to go top gear for 3-4 miles. Instead, you just have to push yourself for 15 minutes or 10 minutes and then you know you will get a break. Those are the best kinds of workouts.

When soccer season is over, or when I can find a day that I don't have a game, I want to try the whole workout, with two 10-minute segments. That might make it closer to an eight-mile speedwork run.

3. Remember last year when I challenged my brother to a 5K, my more athletically-gifted brother? If you weren't here for that, you missed out on some awesome stuff.

Anyway, there could be a second and third round to this ongoing brotherly contest. For sure, we'll challenge one another in June, when we both run the Camp Pendleton Mud Run. Not only do I want to beat him on that day but I want to beat his PR of 1:03 on that course, which he set in 2009. I want to take that time and bury it in the mud and water at Camp Pendleton.

That will be round three. Round two? We've got something we're working on, a race. It's not another 5K because my legs hurt just thinking about running 3.1 miles at top speed. It will be interesting though, I promise. You'll have to keep an eye out for the details as they unfold. We don't have a time or place for our challenge but when we do I'll let you know.