it's just you and me here now

15.87 miles . . .

34 minute warm-up
5 X 6 minutes at tempo pace (5:28's) with 1 minute recovery
6 X strides with full recovery
10 minute cool down

the days are ever getting darker, colder, wetter. less and less people running around bush park. and no one else was on the track, no one. which made it peaceful. long legged lady with the two dogs is still faithful. i ask her where her friend has been. apparently he has nerve damage and exercises indoors in the winter months but at least he has an excuse. i love braving the elements because it proves my toughness. if i can do this workout on a day like this, i can do anything.

though now, i will admit that this was miserable. rain pouring down upon me the entire work out. except for the times that the wind was hurling it sideways into my face.

started the warm up in near darkness. i could barely tell if i was even on the path. at one point i wasn't and my right foot stumbled its way into a hole in the grass. after that i thought i should play it safe and finish the warm up around the track, even though easy pace around the track is boring.

the tempo section seemed at times difficult, which i thought only natural since i increased the speed by 4 seconds, which comes to a meager .5 seconds per 200m. which doesn't appear like much. but this is mr. daniels approach. small measurable increments. ever faster and faster until i am at the olympic trails. that one minute of rest just cruised by me like it was nothing. no time to refocus. it was hard to stay consistent throughout the 6 minutes because of the vicious headwind on the homestretch. large pools of rain covered parts of the track. i splashed into them feeling the water sloshing up through my racing flats. for the first couple laps it seemed epic. the final ones began to wear on me. i became cold, miserable. my legs weren't tired. my wind was fine. i just wanted to get out of the rain. i was soaked to the bone. and i still had to run the strides and the cool down.

i hit really slow times on the sprints because of the headwind that seemed to magnify every time i pushed harder. i thought for a moment about possibly running the other direction with the wind pushing me forward. but this is cheating. yeah i could get great times, but this is the tougher way. there is no short cut in running.

i was glad when it was all over and i was shaking in my car. the heat couldn't blow hard enough.