Speed Work on the Trail

My taper for the Northface 50K at Bear Mountain officially started this week. I've been running my highest mileage in many years, plus mountain biking season is starting, so the thought of cutting back on the running a bit sounds good to me.

Yesterday called for a short speed work session. I started in the late afternoon during a lull between patients, a "lunch break run." I was working near home so I set out from my house and planned to run the mile to the high school track and really do some officially measured and timed laps for my 3 X 3/4 miles. I almost made it there, too. But on the way I ran past the trail head for the Ossipee River trails and unexpectedly veered off there. Give me a beautiful trail over the track any day.

The River Run trail is flat, smooth, and fast...perfect for speed work. I did two of the three repeats on that trail with a half mile jog after each one. This brought me back to the road for the last fast three quarter mile home. All the repeats were run at the same effort, but I only timed the last one because time doesn't mean much on the varying terrain of the trail. The last road 3/4 was in 4:45 (6:05 pace). Ideally I'd do a cool down after this, but it was time to get back to work. Sometimes it feels good to move fast. Yesterday was one of those times!