Time to jazz it up.

Friday was gorgeous, and I got the better part of the afternoon off from work. It climbed to 64 degrees and the sun was out, so every runner in the park had on shorts and a t-shirt as they ran past the melting snowbanks. Since I usually put my iPod in the inside pocket of whatever outerwear I'm wearing to protect myself against frostbite, and my shorts don't have pockets, I procured an armband for the iPod which worked out relatively well. It felt like it was cutting off circulation a little at first, but I ceased to notice it once I really got going... and by "got going", I mean set out on what eventually turned into a 5 mile run with a big hill involved.

I also discovered that I've been accidentally shortchanging myself! When I thought I was doing this:

... I was actually doing this:

... which changes the total miles from 3.44 to about 4.15. I didn't know this until Friday, when my thought process was as follows: since I've been cutting over at the first left, I'll lengthen my run to cut over at the second left. So I'm following the road... and it starts turning and going downhill... and I realize that I am now running the entire upper loop because I can see the north end of the park!

That is what ended up happening. Those of you unfamiliar with the north side of the park may not realize that the path on the east, when heading north, goes down quite a large hill... and that the corresponding west side goes right back up it. I am now privy to that information, having unwittingly played into the path's clutches. I couldn't help gasping like a landed fish and stopping briefly at the top of the hill... but I was still glad that I did it, because who knows how many hills are going to be on the actual course? Good to get used to them now instead of avoiding them. Friday's distance and time amounted to 5.01 miles at a 8:17 pace (so it took me a little over 40 minutes to do the full from-the-apartment-and-back loop, not shown here).

Saturday was a rest day, because it was already busy: I got up before dawn to get royally b-slapped by the Connecticut DMV, procured banana bread, macaroni and cheese and lasagna to cart back home, went to work for a little bit and had a haircut appointment.

Sunday was a different beast entirely.
What should we do to mix it up a little bit? What could possibly help train us better than big, long-distance runs? How about... intervals!
Defined as: "a type of physical training that involves bursts of high intensity work. This high intensity work is alternated with periods of rest or low activity."
Basic translation: Hell on earth.

What you do is this: jog lightly for one lamppost distance, for example. At the second lamppost, open your stride up so that you're running, not jogging... and at the third lamppost, SPRINT to the fourth. And keep doing it. Don't walk... you can jog as slow as you want, but the slower you jog, the faster you're supposed to push it on the strides and sprints. We did our intervals for maybe 1.5miles at a total distances of 3.5 miles (counting to and from the apartment, and a slow jog from the east to the west side as a rest).

This is how you feel afterwards (or, in my case, after the second sprint):

It's good for building up speed, because eventually you get used to running faster and your baseline jogs/strides get faster, which translates to a better time during the actual event. Lungs burning, throat dry, ribcage muscles spasming... and totally awesome when you're doing your sprint on pace with the bicyclist next to you. It's very rare that you really open up like that, and it feels great (as you're doing it, not after... unfortunately). This is definitely going down as an effective short workout for the future.