I wasn't sure I was going to make it before the storm tonight, but I headed out to the park after work anyway. I had stayed late tonight and was already concerned about the pups being inside for so long , but I knew it was going to be a shorter run. The plan tonight, speed training: a one mile run, walk a couple of minutes, two half mile runs with walk breaks between, then two to four quarter mile runs to really push it, of course with recovery walks between each of these as well.
I got to the park, peeled off my work clothes which I had worn over my running clothes all day, and headed out. Only a few of the die-hards were still left at the park by the time I arrived. One by one, most of them were leaving as well. They had probably gotten there earlier and were heading home for dinner.
I started with a fast walk, then shifted into my run. I started out a bit too overzealous, but my goal tonight was to pull a twelve minute mile pace on at least one of the quarter mile runs. I had wanted to do the mile more as a warm up and build speed with each interval. I was feeling really heavy and strained tonight and started out too fast, so I thought I would shoot for the half miles instead now. After I raced along for a bit, I felt the strain and bumped it down to quarter mile intervals. I felt like I could push it more that way and might survive the strain as well.
I hit the first quarter mile, walked a bit, then decided it was looking rather dark out now and I wasn't seeing very many people. I'll get one more quarter in, then call it quits for tonight. Turning around, I headed back in the direction of the car. I pushed myself for the next quarter, really wanting that twelve minute pace. I hit another quarter, then headed to get a drink of water.
As I was walking back to the car, a nice cooling rain began. Once I got in the car it really started pouring. And there was plenty of thunder now too. By the time I pulled in my drive it was coming down in torrents. I decided I would head through the front door, grab the umbrella, then cut through the garage to get the mail and unload the car. I got inside and let the dogs out before doing anything else. My little guy hadn't quite made it, but that was okay, I knew he had done his very best. The rain eased back for a few minutes while I got everything unloaded and the dogs took care of their business, then we all came inside and the storm really hit. (Thank you for waiting until we all got inside.)
After getting everything put away and settled in, I picked up my phone and saw I had an emergency weather warning. Tornado warning sent at 6:39PM, expired at 7:15PM, read at 7:23PM. I was pretty relieved we were all okay and I had missed that!
Coolest part tonight, even though my original plans had been slightly altered, I did hit my 12 minute pace! On both quarters!!
HAPPY RUNNING FOLKS!!!!!
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