Speed work

Speed work today, 5x 6min efforts / 2min easy over undulating road. Movescount.

The undulating part proved the problem - I decided I'd go to the area where CCR do hill repeats as part of that road is nicely undulating, but I think for the purpose of speed repeats it was still rather too hilly? I'm not sure. I did three over that stretch of road but felt like I was doing hill repeats again, heavy rather than speedy, so changed the route to mix in more flat. Average pace for each repeat including any hills was around 4:50, but on the short flat sections at least I was closer to 4:00.

Will have to keep looking for a better spot of land for this one I think! The best spot I can think of are the forestry trails around Stony Creek as these are a good mix of up and down with a lot of gentle gradients mixed in, so there will definitely be lengths of trail that would suit the job. Tomorrow morning I've had to change schedule to take my friend out to Rocky Airport for 0800hrs in the morning and have a dinner date with friends, meaning I will need to long run on Sunday instead.

Since we're up and out tomorrow we're going to head straight out to Stony from the airport see how it's looking. It reopened last weekend but that will only mean that the picnic area and the track out there has been cleared - I have no idea what state the forestry trails or the big 4wd track up the telegraph hill will be like. I might head out and hike it one morning, at least walking I'm less bothered by having to climb over a downed tree trunk every ten metres if tracks are still a mess.

Stats:

Duration 1:29.

What went well: Hmm. I find it hard to judge whether my pace is fast or not on hills, but on the flat it was fine. Very clear that whilst my hill climbing has improved a lot already, as soon as I up the output and try to go 'fast' things get sluggish very quickly. I think this is why it felt more grindy like hill repeats rather than fast like speedwork. Got a good workout though, and felt suitably knackered by the end.
Next time: Need to work out a better spot for these. It took a while to run there and once I did I was still distracted wondering if these were the right profile to be running on anyway. I should have gone out slower for the first one in hindsight.
Soundtrack: Dodgy 80's playlist. (Probably didn't help.)