The bad news? It only gets harder

More on the bad news later. The good news is of course that I survived my lactate threshold run today as prescribed by Pftizinger. My Garmin reminds me that I started the run at 4:54 a.m., an ungodly hour. I was so tired when my alarm went off at 3:45 a.m. (providing me with a few times to hit the snooze button). I really did not, and I mean did not, want to go out there. I decided to check the weather and saw that the current temperature was about 20 C, compared to a forecast 27C with rain for the evening.

Okay, I thought, I can deal with this pain to avoid future pain.

After a three mile warm up, I launched straight into the tempo run. I had a real hard time pumping up the pace in the early morning. The first three miles (7:19, 7:24, 7:20) are at the slower end of my LT pace. Whatever, it was still a face pace, close to my half marathon speed. After I hit the halfway mark, I felt a lot better -- I could feel the run coming to the end and I did a gut check. Did I have more gas? Yep. Could I step it up a little more? I think so. Which led to two strong final miles (7:05, 7:07).

I do understand that working my LT is great for my body as it gets used to the accumulation of lactic acid. But there's also a few things these runs are great for: learning to run a fast race pace by yourself (I tend to leave speed to the race-day magic), working on quick turnover, keeping my posture straight and, of all things, learning to breathe properly.

The LTs get harder. I have a 12 miler with 6 LT miles next week, then (like Fran) a 7 mile LT run. Scary.