7 miles total - 3 hills, 2 tempo

Thursday night I ran a hard workout. Good thing it was sunny and warm(ish) out after work.

Wore shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. And my Brooks, of course.

After a mile run to my starting point, I started my hill workout - the normal 400 meter uphill from the corner of SE Spokane St. and SE Grand Ave., up to the top of the hill in Sellwood Park (my finish line is just around the corner, past the lamp post next to the fire hydrant).

I run up at a brisk but not flat-out pace, then walk or jog back down, and then on my next time up I try to beat my previous time by 5-10 seconds. I go up 6 times, and by the sixth time I'm working very hard.

Here are my uphill times:

1. 02:17.6
   
2. 02:09.1
   
3. 02:11.0 (oops)
   
4. 02:03.3 (better!)
   
5. 01:59.0
   
6. 01:52.7

It's worth noting that that last time corresponds to a minute-per-mile pace of 7:33. Sure, it's only for 400 meters, but that's still damned fast for these old legs! And I did that on my last try up the hill!

...and then I went on a fast 2.0 mile tempo run. Well, actually, I ate some Cliff Shot Bloks next, then I went down to the Springwater Trail to run my 2.0 mile tempo run. Oh, and I stretched out some. Yeah, there was a bit of rest in-between, but it's all good.

I was aiming for averaging about a 9:00 pace. I thought I could do that for 2 miles. But what I ended up doing was about the same as my 5K race pace. Here are the half-mile splits:

1. 04:23.9
   
2. 04:47.7
   
3. 05:02.8
   
4. 04:54.1

Total time: 19:08.5, for an average pace of 9:34. Still, I managed that after my tough hill workout, so if I continue the hard workouts once a week, and keep my miles up, I'm going to totally rock in the 5K next year. On my own personal scale, that is.