We had a nice, blow out the lungs speed workout with Gilbert's Gazelles Tuesday morning....

 

1.5 mile warm up

4 x 2,000 meters on the paved road around the soccer fields across the street from Zilcher Park at 10k pace with about a two-minute rest between each interval

1.5 mile cool down

 

My 2k times/min per mile paces....

 

3 - 7:44 (6:14 min/mile) I paid for running the second interval too hard. Wasn't quite "recovered" before running this one.

 

As you can see, these paces are closer to my 5k times than my 10k times. (My best 10k is about a 6:45 min/mile pace, which means I should have run these 2k intervals no faster than 8:30 or so - 8:30 as in total time, not pace.)

 

But then again, my best 10k was in March. And besides, as I've said here many times, when you run with a group of people, a race always breaks out.

 

Still, I should have been smarter. The first interval felt pretty good. No heavy breathing. (Well, there was some heavy breathing, but I was not sprinting or anything). The second interval I just got totally stupid. Me and this other guy kept exchanging "the lead" and it did kinda sorta turn into a race the last 100 meters. When it was time to start the third interval, my lungs were still "spasming" and I took an extra 10 to 15 seconds after everyone from my group took off before I took off. This was the hardest interval. My breathing was most labored here, my legs hated me but my mind said keep going, keep going and I finally started feeling like myself during the final 50 or so meters. I actually felt better during the last interval and think if I had maintained this pace for the first two intervals, it would have been a successful workout.

 

Still, I have to admit that I am blown away that I could hit sub 6-minute mile pace twice duing the workout. The total workout amounts to 8k (4.96 miles) in exactly 30 minutes, a tidy 6:03 min/mile pace.

 

Chicago is coming, Chicago is coming!!!