September 20

AM: 5 miles easy
PM: 4 x Wake Forest Miles - 11 miles

After an easy shake-out run in the morning in the wetlands, I met Carlos and Scott after work at Rancho San Antonio for some "Wake Forest Miles" on one of the park's wide dirt paths.

The gist of this workout is that you run 800m up a slight incline at around 10k pace, immediately turn around, and "recover" on the downhill at tempo pace: roughly even splitting the two. This could also be reinterpreted as holding tempo pace on the way out and dropping to 10k pace on the way back, but factoring in the terrain.

The recovery between sets is tiny, which makes it tough. We took between 60 and 90 seconds recovery for each.

I tried to hang with Carlos but with limited success as he crept away from me on each rep as we flew past other runners, a flock of quails pecking at the brush, and a few wondering deer. I was working, but  that old familiar sting is starting to feel good again. For me, working out with groups, especially when you have someone else pushing you, gets you in shape much more efficiently than trying to go at it alone.

Splits: 2:36, 2:38, 2:39, 2:30, 2:38, 2:30, 2:41, 2:26