soul buster II

Today was the infamous soul buster II. I've been nervous about the workout because I haven't run much at all this week. I put in 7 on Friday and 7 on Saturday...so that's pretty low mileage for the week :) Been nursing a hamstring/hip/lower back issue that doesn't seem to be getting any better. The workout was a 20 mile run that ended with about 7 miles of hills. Then at the end of the 20 miles you were on the track at Austin H.S. The portion on the track was supposed to be 2 miles at marathon goal pace (6:40), 2 miles at half marathon goal pace (6:20) and 2 miles at 10k pace (6:00). I wasn't too far off, but definitely have some work to do. My miles were as follows:
mgp1: 6:39
mgp2: 6:38
hmpg1: 6:19
hmgp2: 6:16
10k 1: 6:12
10k 2: 6:14

In the fall when I did the workout my splits were as follows:
mgp 1: 7:15
mgp 2: 7:15
hmgp1: 6:48
hmgp2: 6:48
10k 1: 6:23
10k 2: 6:18

So I have gotten faster, but my goal this year is 15 minutes faster than what I was training for last year....so obviously things on the track need to be faster this time around. I really didn't feel good at any part on the track. I worked really hard to not let my hamstring or anything give me an "out" on the workout. I wanted to try and hit the 2:55 goals, and I didn't want to get through half of it and say "oh that hurts, I should stop." And while I didn't hit my goals, I never let up. I was pushing as hard as I could the whole time. My problem was just that I never felt loose or had a fluid stride so it was really hard to get down to 6min pace. I had that pace for the first 800m or so of the first 10k mile, but I couldn't keep it there. The good news is I didn't die too much....but I still have work to do.

pluses: time with family, nicer weather

minuses: my body hurts!