Week 11, Day 1

I could have run yesterday when I came home from the agility trial but instead I just ate Chinese food.

Today I did another Yasso workout at Lunken. I thought about doing 7 or 8, but it was hard enough to get myself in the mood for 6. The schedule says 6-8. I counted back from the race date to see what it would be if I was just doing Yassos every week, and it would be just 6 this week so that settled it for me.

I'm feeling better than two weeks ago when I did the last set of Yassos---no hangover or headache---but I am just a little tired. Did not get out for the dog walk until 10 am. So it was almost noon before I started on the Yassos.

The weather is great for a mid-day run, fortunately, and once I got going I felt pretty good. Like last time, I wore my fanny pack with the water bottle and brought along some GU.

I started around the loop in the same clockwise direction as last time, but I didn't do as long of a warmup as last time. I jogged from the parking lot out to the first mile marker that you hit after the top of the hill. Well, actually, I jogged for a mile, then stopped to stretch a little bit at the benches at the top of the hill, then walked for a minute, then jogged up to the mile marker. So, the warmup was just 1.1 miles in 11:59.

Here are the splits for the intervals:

1) .49/4:02 recovery of.31/3:19
2) .49/4:09, recovery of .34/3:31
3) .49/3:58, recovery of .34/3:41
4) .49/3:54, recovery of .30/3:41 (had the GU pack during the recovery)
5) .48/3:57, recovery of .31/3:23
6) .51/4:03, recovery of .96/10:01

For the recoveries, I did the same thing as last time. I walked for 30 seconds, then jogged for a minute, then turned around and jogged back to the marker, then jogged about 15 seconds or so past it and then back to start the interval again at the mile marker that was my previous end point.

The only difference was after the fourth interval, I walked more. I had the GU at that point, and I walked for over a minute, then jogged for a minute, then jogged back.

To keep myself occupied during the intervals, I counted to 60 three times, checking my watch each time I hit 60. For the first two intervals, I had to run a little more before I hit the marker, but on the later ones, I was getting to the marker just about the time I hit 60 for the third time.

I had the watch set to show lap time in the main display, and distance in the smaller display. That seemed to work out okay.

I passed one woman who was doing possibly multiple laps at a slower pace even then I was going on  my recoveries. She asked me how long I was running and I told her that I didn't know for sure because I was doing intervals and going back and forth. I wondered if she was looking for someone to run with. That would be nice, but not today.

There was also some guy who was apparently walking around in the same direction, who started around the same time I did, and somehow even though he was walking and I was running (and I kept passing him during my intervals), we finished our loop around at about the same time. He never did say hello to me. I couldn't figure out how he got ahead of me, but maybe he had ducked into the bushes for a pee during one of the early intervals, then came back out? Anyway, that was a little weird.

Overall, I have to be satisfied with this workout. I think it felt a little easier than last time. Probably good that I didn't start as crazy fast.