Round and Round

 

I usually have a long day scheduled for Saturday or Sunday, but I had coach move it to today given the Christmas holiday weekend.

I usually do a "quality" session midweek, and a long run on the weekends, but today it's both. 17 miles. 

2 mile warm up, followed by a marathon pace mile (8:20), followed by an easy mile (8:30-8:45). Repeat 7 times.

Being December in Wisconsin, it's a balmy minus 8 with a wind chill of minus 30.

So. I joined a local gym that has an indoor track, 1/8 mile. That's 136 laps. It sounds boring, but it's really not. It is a lot of turns, so I am hoping to get there early enough to do some reverse laps before anyone shows up, and I have to do the rest based on today's counter-clock-wise rotation. 

I tested it out earlier this week, on a short 8 mile run and let me tell you, it's a waaaay better than a treadmill.

So, here we go, round and round.

Edit: Done with that one, ran with Jess for the middle 9 miles. A little hot sometimes on the recovery miles, but inside temperature of 70 degrees makes the miles feel effortless sometimes. Cadence is still wonky sometimes, I think the corners are getting me off a bit. Trying to stay in the 170 range, would love to see it get to 175 as the year progresses.