CRUSHED IT!

Ok, so I've been complaining lately about plateaued performance and acheyness and blah blah blah.  I've been fretting about managing exertion and heart rate and overheating on the runs.  Well, both Monday and yesterday's runs were remarkably better than any of the runs last week.

Monday's run featured a 32:00 run around the 3 mile loop at Memorial, followed by 3 penalty laps.  I know it should have been 4, but I miscounted and only ran 3.  I made up the missed lap Wednesday, so it was ok.  The primary goal was to manage my pace, heart rate, and exertion.  The first lap went off at a quick 9:45, the next two slid down precipitiously.  The speed laps, however, were all at a 2:00 pace, so I was satisfied with that.  Plus, the last mile and a half or so was run in pouring rain and through slushy muck, so even though I wasn't over heating I was still slogging through mud and blechiness.

Wednesday rolled around and I renewed the focus on pace above all.  Mile 1:  10:00.  Mile 2:  10:01.  Mile 3:  10:02.  I nailed it.  Of course, I cheated a bit on the third mile because I took it easy on the first half of that mile clocking a 5:30.  The next quarter I clawed back ten seconds from my target pace to put the total at 7:53, which allowed me to crush the final quarter at just over 2:09.  I counted that final quarter as my first penalty lap, and the makeup lap from Monday's workout.

So, in keeping with the "rules" I made up, because I was over my target of 24:00 by 4 portions of 2:00 intervals (24-26, 26-28, 28-30, 30+), I owed 4 more penalty laps.  These laps went at 1:54, 2:02, 2:01, and 1:54, which got me the :09 back from the first penalty lap at the end of the 3 miles.  All in all, a very, very good run for this point in my game.
Now that I'm running 2:00 quarters consistently, I'm going to change the rules.
For every 4:00 increment I'm off my pace, I'm going to owe a half mile penalty lap with a target time of 4:00.  If I can keep stringing these guys together, I should be able to hit my goal of an 8:00 mile.  If I can run a single 8:00 mile, then I can start tacking on additional quarters and push the long distance times down.  My last marathon chugged along at about 12:30 per mile.  I'm looking to shave--well, really more like amputate--2:30 off that time for my next marathon.  And really I'd like to trim about 3:30 off that time and notch a sub-4:00:00 marathon.  That won't get me into the money, but it will get me into Denny's before the lunch rush shows up.

THAT'S worth the effort.