Start Time: 9/20/08, 7:00am
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center half-mile loop
Distance: 15 miles
Total Miles For September: 35 miles

So here was my weekend assignment: “The workout is a 5 x 3 mile ‘make-or-break run’, with a 3-minute recovery (no more, no less) in between each 3-mile repeat. You’ll follow that with a 10-mile tempo run on Sunday. These workouts will help train you to run negative splits. The goal for this set of workouts is to run the EXACTLY as they are described in the table below – no faster – no slower.” I was given specific time goals for my 3-milers, and on paper I thought, “This will be easy.” Ha ha ha. Here’s out it turned out…

Target: 30:00 (10min/mile avg)
Miles 1-3: 29:43 (10:02, 9:48, 9:53)
Miles 4-6: 29:45 (9:53, 9:59, 9:53)

Target: 27:00 (9min/mile avg)
Miles 7-9: 26:42 (8:57, 8:55, 8:50)
Miles 10-12: 26:43 (8:48, 8:57, 8:57)

Target: 25:00 (8:20min/mile avg)
Miles 13-15: 26:43 (8:16, 9:05, 9:24)

Yeah, everything was going great until mile 14, huh? Just ran out of energy, and hauling around a few extra pounds from earlier this month was not helping matters. Time to stop stuffing my face and really buckle down after several weeks of slacking. This should have been easier, and I should’ve hit all five segments easily, not just the first four. Ah well! Now I know!