8/16 run

A tough one today! My first workout with the Eastside Runners cross-country team, and it was a doozy.

We did fartleks - 3 minutes hard and 1 minute easy, 5 times. It was at Westhill Park in Bothell, which is a hair less than 1/2 mile in circumference. I made it around exactly 5 times, and finished my last 3 minutes hard session right at the spot where we started. I decided to forgo the last 1 minute easy, as I was totally wiped, so I covered 2 1/4 miles in 19 minutes (yes, I did eventually jog a very short cool-down and stretch).

The good news: This means I ran 2 1/4 miles, in rough conditions (all the hard stretches were uphill into the sun, and it was 80 degrees at 8am), at a faster pace than I ran my 3000 race on Wednesday - 8:27 pace today versus 8:43 pace Wednesday.

The bad news: I felt really rough, and clearly have a LOT of work to do to get ready for this season. Luckily, the first race isn't until the 30th, so I have a couple weeks, and there's a month between that one and the next race, so I've got time to get my act together.

This does tell me that I can get down to 8:00 pace for a 5k by the end of the season, which sets me up well for the winter races and next spring/summer. Not sure how I'll do in longer races, as some of the cross-country races are 8k - hopefully I can get some miles in and get those races under 9:00 pace.

Goals for the cross-country season:
5k: 25:00
8k: 42:00

I also got my uniform for cross-country (woot!). Sadly, it's, um...snug. But, I'm going to use that as motivation to get rid of some action in the midsection and chest, and hopefully I'll have need of a smaller size next year. :-)

I've run just under 36 miles since I started the blog.