I wrapped up the first half of my training week with my first day of speedwork in quite a long time, and surprisingly, I don’t feel too bad afterward. I’m following the Yasso 800’s like I did last summer. The theory behind this concept is that you can predict you’re marathon finish time by running sets of 800’s once a week, starting with mixing in 4 (although I started with 6) and working your way up to 10 by marathon day.

The way I decided to do it was to plan doing 6 miles total yesterday, and running an 800 at 3:35 (my goal time) and then running an 800 at regular pace in between for a total of 6 miles. I actually ended up running 6.5 miles because I had to cool down after my last speed run, so it turned out okay. I don’t think it was as bad as the first time I did speed work last year, but I was worn out by the time I was done.

I’ve been struggling to find an open track that I can do a measured mile here in Lower Macungie Township where I live, and I have not been successful. So instead, I found that the fairly flat loop in the development I live in is approx 1/2 mile (~800m), so I decided to use that loop to complete it. It actually wasn’t as bad running it as I thought, I figured the traffic would be worse, but I forgot that it was only 6am when I ran it…

So this weekend my workouts are a little different since i’m on call and can’t stray too far from the house. I figure i’ll get 4 4-mile loops in tomorrow somehow, making sure I don’t stray more than a mile away from the house in case I get called. Its difficult to do, but I need to get my runs in, and I think we’ll survive…

Other than that, its a rest day today as we prep for the Memorial Day weekend. I’ve always run the Old Fort 5-miler on Memorial Day morning, so it will be odd to not to do that this year, but thats part of what happens when you move. We are much happier in the Lehigh Valley then we ever were in the Wyoming Valley, so the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, without a doubt.