The photos don’t always have to do with running. In fact, they almost never have anything to do with running.
I woke up early this morning to take my car to the shop, again. They didn’t fix what they said they fixed. It’s almost like they did absolutely nothing because the same exact thing happened again. When it rains, the floorboards (not sure that’s the right terminology) under the driver and passenger seat get wet. Wet enough to saturate the carpet. It’s pretty awful when it rains for an extended period of time, because I can’t open the windows to air it out, otherwise the rest of the interior would get wet, too. It gets to smelling like mildew. The mechanic’s explanation, which checks out on Google, is that the sunroof/air conditioning drains are clogged. This is not an intuitive thing. Of course, just when my car seems to be trouble-free, a non-mechanical issue arises. A smelly non-mechanical issue. Honda Problems.
I had 8 miles today with 18-20 minutes of speedwork mixed in. Overall, 8 miles at 10:00 pace. But again, with these weirdly organized workouts, that pace means little to nothing. Also, I did slightly more than 20 minutes of speedwork. This was the workout:
2 mile warm-up ∼ 10:00/mile
3 x 1 mile repeats with 0.25 mile rest @ warm-up pace
2.25 mile cooldown
So, this is a pretty strange workout because of the extra long warmup/cooldown periods, but when I’m on my own to create a workout that involves running 8 miles and around 20 minutes of speedwork, this is what I come up with. It was difficult, so I’m doing something right.
The mile repeats were good:
- 7:32
- 7:30
- 7:25
The quarter-mile jog in between was the right amount of time so each repeat felt just about impossible to finish. Then the 2 miles at the end were probably the hardest part of the whole thing.
Weirdly enough, and just for comparison, I did this same workout in Omaha on a day that was in the 60s (temperature-wise, tomorrow is my birthday but I’m not quite that old). Those mile repeats were all 30 seconds faster, and I had no problem whatsoever completing the run. Add 25 degrees and 35 percent more humidity, and although I got my ass kicked, I’m really stoked on what I did today.
After I finished the last repeat, a guy in his garage yelled out onto the trail, “It’s too hot, and it’s not even July!” I think it’s funny when people shout comments like this because I wonder how they expect me to reply. I said, “Tell me about it.” So lame. I should’ve asked him for some water, or maybe he should’ve offered.
Day off tomorrow. Will write if nothing precludes me from doing so.
runjournal 