After a nearly three mile "warm-up" with one of our faster runners on the XC team for part of his workout (sub-seven pace), I headed over to the cemetery for a session of Z-hill repeats.
"Z", as in there are two sharp hairpin turns that challenge the ability to corner and accelerate out of turns. Between each rep, I jogged a shortcut down the hill for active recovery, and took an extra one-minute break halfway through.
It went okay. I felt fine and great physically, but yet I found myself not really pushing the pace. This was totally mental. My splits averaged around 1:08, but last time I did them they averaged around 1:03. Confirmed my slight bit of sandbagging when I decided to push the last one and hit it at :58. I thought to myself "THAT'S what it should really feel like". Then I felt guilty for not giving that effort in the other reps. Sigh...
Ran the cooldown and was done.
w/u: Ran 2.9 miles @ 6:53/mile pace.
10 hill repeats w/ active recovery - 2.8 miles total @ 8:30/mile pace.
c/d: Ran 1.0 miles @ 8:46/mile pace.
Paved roads.
Very hilly.
Around 70 degrees, overcast, muggy.
Brooks Mach 11 spikeless, shorts, short sleeved shirt (for warm-up).
