The road to 13.1: Into the ground

My last two runs probably equate to self-inflicted torture.  First, yesterday’s bonus hills run:

Bonus Run:  5.01 miles, 53:50, 10:44.6/mile

Sometimes, I wonder why I do that to myself.  I’ve done the Maple Street hill run twice now.  It’s positively torture.  I’m sure it will benefit me in the long run, but it’s a tough run.  On the upside, my new shoes seem to be helping me out a bit.  I was sore, but it was tired-sore, not damaged-sore.

Tonight, I was supposed to do speed work, defined as 1 mile easy followed by a 3-mile tempo run, then wrapped up with 1 more mile easy.  Instead, I tried to keep up with people who were way, way faster than I am.  I failed.  I won’t say I ran myself completely into the ground, but I came very, very close.  Unfortunately, I don’t know my entire time, because I somehow managed to stop my GPS unit, probably while getting to or stowing my water bottle.  I lost about 0.6 mile as a result.  I fail.  Here’s what I actually recorded.

Run #35:  4.10 miles, 39:05, 9:32.0/mile

Based on the time I started and finished, I logged roughly 4.7 miles in 44:06, for a 9:23/mile pace.  That was a crazy-fast pace.  I made a poor decision in trying to keep up with a pace far beyond my ability.  I’m sure I got something out of this run … right?