One is the Loneliest Runner...

I've been very lucky the past few weeks because, with the exception of the days during my trip to Vermont, I've been able to make every team speed workout. I used to do speed work alone almost exclusively and usually in the early morning. Since that's what I was used to it didn't totally suck seem that bad. Chalk it up to "what you don't know can't hurt you," because now that I've started doing speed work in a group, it's hard to imagine flying solo anymore.

The hill I used for my 200s, Morningside Dr.

Unfortunately, I've got a very busy week at work and I knew there was no way I'd be out in time to make last nights 7pm workout in Central Park. Did I just decide to skip the workout? If you're guess is yes, you probably haven't been reading this blog for very long. I decided to do the workout tout seul and before work.

What was the workout? Hill repeats--twelve to fourteen 200m repeats at 5k pace to be precise. You know what? It wasn't all that bad. I got up super early and discovered that it's a lot cooler at 5am than 7pm (okay, I already knew that, but the part of me that likes sleep tends to overpower the part of me that likes lower temps). I also discovered that I can still push myself without "good" peer pressure since I did the full 14 instead of stopping at 12.

The moral of the story: I can miss a team workout and still do the work but it's definitely more fun when you have others yelling at you encouraging you to do your best.