"I think she was a middle-distance runner"

Since last fall, almost all of my runs have been slow and easy -- which is not a bad thing -- but now that 5K season is here, it's time to crank up the intensity, so last Friday I went to the track. I didn't really know what kind of intervals to run or at what speeds, so I used an extremely handy VDOT calculator suggested by Mrs. CJ. It gave me paces for various types of training, and I used the easy and interval paces. As I said, I didn't really have a plan, but this is what I ended up doing:

1-mi warm up - 11:30
200m - 0:57
200m - 0:61
400m - 2:06
800m - 4:45
400m - 2:08
400m - 2:06
200m - 0:57
200m - 0:58
200m - 0:56
200m - 0:56
1-mile cool down - 11:32

Afterwards I thought that it seemed too easy. I thought that I might have given myself too much rest in between intervals, or maybe the pace was too slow. But the next morning I was sore and felt as if I had just done a hard workout, so it must not have been too light after all.

On Sunday, my running buddy, who has not been running since last summer because of a foot injury, called and asked if I wanted to go for a run. We met up at 10 a.m., which was a little late, considering it was almost 80 degrees and 90% humidity, and headed out for a hilly 6 miler. I am in awe of how she can not run for a year and then go and run 6 miles with hills. She did it though, which is a testament to her awesomeness. We ran a loop starting at her home, which covered a lot of roads that I was not familiar with. I like exploring new routes, and it was great running with her again, although I'm not used to talking while running. In the end, it was too hot to run the whole way, so we started our cool-down walk early and ended up running a total of 5.2 miles. Not too bad, considering I had only anticipated doing 2 or 3.

I didn't feel tired afterwards, which is good, because I needed to stay awake for a concert that night. The support staff and I were going to get a blast from the past seeing Procol Harum and Jethro Tull. According to my co-workers, I'm too young to even know who those groups are, let alone see them in concert, but it was a really good show.

I was really only familiar with Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale, but everything they played that night was amazing, and I will soon be purchasing some of their albums.

Jethro Tull was the main act, and they didn't disappoint. In addition to their concert staples, they played a madrigal written by Henry the VIII, two songs from their folk-y "Songs From the Wood" album, as well as this one: Budapest, from the infamous album that denied Metallica a Grammy award in 1989. I love the melody, and the first line is "I think she was a middle-distance runner." !



This isn't my video, but it's really close to what I saw, considering it was filmed at another concert only 2 days before!

After Sunday's run, my shins were pretty sore, so I've been icing them and resting. This morning I biked 10 miles on the trail instead of running 10 miles, as I wanted to. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday the shins will feel good enough for me to get my long run in.