Whew. I just got a not-so-gentle reminder of how hard it is to run 6K of intervals at 5K pace. My workout du jour was 11 miles with 1200m x 5 at 5K pace. I was a bit leery of this workout as it is my first interval workout since before the Capitol Mile (approx. 5 weeks ago). I decided I would take the workout by feel and just run hard, but not kill myself by being slave to a particular pace. This strategy was for 2 reasons: (1) I don't want to hurt myself; and (2) the Madison Mini Marathon is on Saturday.

I did 5.4 as a warmup (9:38). My HR was nice and low when on flat surfaces (upper 130s), but I did my normal hilly route with a couple bigger hills so I did get it up to the 160s a couple times. First 1200 m clicked off at 7:18. Not great, but not bad given a good portion was uphill. Second 1200 m was the flattest and was 6:55. Third one I started getting a nasty side stitch. Ugh. 7:08. I took about 45 seconds longer on my recovery in hopes the stitch would subside. I almost decided to bag the intervals at this point. Then I decided I would at least try to finish them out at tempo. Hit #4 at 7:25. About half way through I started feeling better, so I decided to go for #5 and finish my workout: 7:11. I then ran a bit over a mile for a cool down. Sheesh. Tough workout. I got home and was entering my day's workout and noticed my recoveries were supposed to be 2.5 minutes, but I did 2. Nothing like making the workout harder than necessary! ;) I am glad I finished it up though.

I have revised this week to cut back a fair bit more than scheduled since I have been progressively and aggressively building the last 4 weeks (51, 60, 63, 70). Was scheduled for 68, but will probably log around 55-58. Should allow me to have a tiny taper before Saturday's half marathon too. Not sure what to expect with that. Part of me is considering running it at MP since I don't have any MP runs scheduled. But the weather is looking perfect, so I may just have to go for it even though I am pretty beat up. Either way, I am REALLY looking forward to it.

On a personal note, on Monday my Mom called and asked if my kids wanted to come spend 3 days with her, my Dad and their 2 cousins. Heck yeah! So we dropped them off last night and are childless until Friday night. It is a great break, but boy is the house quiet without them!