Thursday - Progressive run - 12.4 miles total

I didn't want to not do a hard workout this week so I decided to do the Wednesday workout on Thursday - an 11 miles progressive run where I pick up the pace each mile and finish sub 5:40 pace. My plan was to be sub 7:00 pace after 2 miles when I was sufficiently warmed up and speed up ~10 seconds/mile for each mile. My actual splits were 7:23, 6:54, 6:48, 6:36, 6:31, 6:18, 6:11, 5:52, 5:46, 5:37, 5:26. After I finished the 11 miles, I did a 1.4 mile cooldown.

I felt great today, was motivated, not sore and was really pleased with how the workout went. Midway through the workout, I was thinking of doing a 12 mile progressive run with about 1/2 mile cooldown afterwards, but I made too big a jump in pace when I went from 6:11 to 5:52 to be able to keep picking it up each mile at the end. It was definitely a confidence booster to be able to keep picking up the pace and finish sub 5:30. I had originally been hoping to get down to about 5:35 pace at the end and when I was close to that after mile 10, I knew I still had enough in the tank to pick it up for another mile.

I felt good throughout the entire run and my hamstring/quad/feet all felt ok and weren't bothering me. Since I did this workout on Thursday evening, I won't be attempting to run a 5k this weekend. I'll just plan on doing my regularly scheduled shorter long run with 11 miles at marathon pace.

The most amusing part of my run took place with about 3 miles left in my progressive run. I was running on an asphalt sidewalk/trail that loops around a neighborhood and a golf course and there were a number of people out walking dogs or riding bikes on it. I came up on older man walking his dog who was stopped near a drinking fountain and he just reeked of booze. As I got near him, he told me that I had better run the other direction around the loop. I'm not quite sure why it bothered him so much that I was running counterclockwise instead of clockwise, but since I was cruising at sub 6:00 pace at this point, I didn't want to stop and ask him why I should be running clockwise around the loop instead. I was wondering if I would see him again since I still had another loop to do, but I didn't run into him again.