FIRST TUESDAY

Last night I ran another 2-mile time trial with my running club. From an earlier post, you may recall that I ran very slowly the first time I tried this 2-mile test of fitness. I knocked 21 seconds off my time so it feels good to be progressing. More importantly, I felt really, really good DURING and AFTER the 2-miler. Two important things I did differently this time: 1) I warmed up better, by running 4 miles before the trial instead of just 2 like last time, and 2) I consumed a packet of HammerGel about 25 minutes before the trial.

My splits / MaxHR / Avg HR looked like this:

1 - 1:47 178 162
2 - 1:49 185 181
3 - 1:46 188 187
4 - 1:48 188 187

5 - 1:50 190 188
6 - 1:52 188 187
7 - 1:50 189 187
8 - 1:38 195 193

What I learned this time around: I have to learn how to maintain focus in that third quarter of the trial. My laps 5, 6 and 7 were my slowest because I think I simply spaced out, mentally. I never really felt fatigued, I just stopped paying attention. The good news: My 14:20 2-miler was pretty even: the first mile was 7:10 just like the second.

Goal time for March: 14 minutes even. Gotta knock off about 2 or 3 seconds per lap.