A Run With Some Pick-ups

After taking yesterday off to recoop from running four days in a row, ending with Sunday's 12 miler, I was back out on the road this morning to get in a decent little run. I didn't want to run 10 miles and I definitely wanted to run more than five, so I compromised and did eight. It wasn't a normal eight, though. No, I decided to put that Running Times article I talked about in yesterdays blog to use again. The writer in it stated that four to five days prior to your marathon you should do a run between six to eight miles and throw a series of pick-ups in to get a touch of speed work in. These pick-ups should be around 30 seconds in length and be at around your 10k race pace, which for me is around 6:15 per mile. The pick-ups should be followed by a good two to three minutes of easy running. I hadn't done a workout like that in awhile so it sounded like fun to me. After running easy for my opening two miles, I dropped the hammer and kicked up my speed to 10k pace for my first series of pick-ups. It felt a little strange at first, but after my heart, lungs and legs adjusted, I felt fine, feeling very fluid and somewhat relaxed. It really is amazing to see that after you do those 30 second short interval bursts and then you slow it down to what almost seems like a jog, how your overall pace still remains pretty fast. After slowing down after doing the pick-ups, my pace usually leveled off somewhere between 7:10 and 7:15 pace, and remarkably, it really did feel like I was jogging. In total, I did about seven of these quick hitters with some easy running in between, and actually finished up the eight mile run averaging around 7:28 pace. It really was a nice little workout that wasn't too hard, but at the same time got my heart pumping in spots and allowed my legs to really stretch out a bit. The cool, overcast Fall weather made it all the more enjoyable to run as well. I felt very gratified after finishing the workout, and like after Sunday's long run, I feel all the more confident going into Saturday morning's race.

Today's workout: 8.1 miles > 1:00:30 > 7:28 pace

Miles this week: 8.1