Tuesday - Speedwork

Since I missed the Kenyan Way mile repeats yesterday I decided to do mile repeats at lunch today. I did 4 x 1 mile with 2 minutes recovery between each one. My goal was to start at 5:20 - 5:25 pace and then drop down to near 5:00 pace at the end if I could. I did a 3 mile warmup and drills, stretched and some strides. My times were 5:26, 5:16, 5:11, 5:16. The first one was tough to get going on and I could just never get down to 5:20 pace except on the last 1/4. I probably should have done a couple more strides at the end of my warmup, but since I was running over lunch I didn't have a ton of extra time. The 2nd mile started feeling good and I was right where I wanted to be. I felt even better on the 3rd one and hit 5:11, but I was pretty wiped out at the end and I wasn't sure how the last one would feel. I started out and was at 78 seconds at the 1/4, but my legs felt dead and I knew I was in trouble. I could really feel the lactic acid starting to build and I was wondering if I should stop at 800, rest for a minute and then try to hit 2:30 on the last 800. I made up my mind that I was going to finish even if I was running 5:30 pace because I need to get past these thoughts of throwing in the towel when I start slowing down. I hit the 800 at 2:28 and I had slowed down a little that 1/4. The 3rd 1/4 was really tough and I hit 80 seconds again. At that point I knew I was almost done and thought that I would probably be able to keep it under 5:20. I picked it up at the end at hit 78 seconds for the last 1/4 and finished at 5:16. It was slower than the 3rd one, but a respectable time. I did a 1.5 mile cooldown for a total of 8.5 miles on the day.