And finished comfortably.

Tuesday, 8/31--overslept! My clock read 5:27. Realizing that I usually leave the house for my workout at West Chester Henderson at no later than 5:35, I jumped out of bed. I gave myself massive head rush. I threw on my shorts and fumbled around in the dark for my watch and socks. I then grabbed the pants my wife left out for me to iron (I do the ironing; she makes the lunches!), and figured I'd just iron my stuff post-workout. I put on the coffee while I ironed. I finished the pants, grabbed a couple of sips of coffee, and headed out at about 5:40--five or so minutes later than usual. I warmed up as usual and tried to stretch as efficiently as I could. The workout, Kevin announced, was 4x1200 with a 200 jog rest. He said do the 1200 at or below 5K pace. Everyone agreed to take the easy...6 minute pace. We thought we'd do 45s...as in 45 seconds per 200, and then drop a second per 200 for the other 1200s.
Trial 1: 4:31 (~45s)
Trial 2: 4:23 (~44s)
Trial 3: 4:17 (~43s)
Trial 4: 3:58 (~39s)--the pace of the 1000s I did on Sunday.

I found myself lagging in the rear of the pack for the first two 1200s, although I was running comfortably. I would begin to pull even with 100 to go. On the 4th one, the group separated a bit, with four runners starting early to avoid getting in the way of oncoming runners. The rest of us then began. I was in the rear. I was a little boxed in until the straightaway. I then felt comfortable that, even though I was 20 meters behind, I was going at the right pace. At the 550 mark, I picked up my pace and found myself within 15 meters of the 5-man sub-pack. At the 800 mark, I was within 10 meters. With 200 to go, I relaxed and got my knees up and finished comfortably. I was pleased since I had a raucous beginning to the day and was able to pull through the workout. I also handled the rest well.

Monday, 8/30--easy 4.4 miles in 34:45.

Sunday,8/29--
warmed up 1.25
stretched well
5x1000 on Rustin's XC course, like I did a couple of weeks ago with Justin and DJ. Target pace: 3:20 with 3:40 recovery...for an even 7 min.
trial 1: 3:28
trial 2: 3:18
trial 3: 3:15
trial 4: 3:14
trial 5: 3:22
...for an average of 3:19+.

This was a tough workout after all the lifting the day before, but it felt good to run, on average, my target time.

Just to think: I did even more heavy lifting after the workout as I attempted to clean out our crawl space!