This was one of those runs Mick Jagger spoke about when he sang "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need."

I took to the road today to do my 4 x 800 workout. Not the most ideal of conditions, with winds in the low teens, and I ended up paying for it. After a 1.37-mile warm-up to the relatively flat stretch of road I targeted for my intervals, I went to work, targeting intervals in the range of 3:15 to 3:20 with 400 walk/jog recoveries. The first two (generally with the wind) went fine. I was slightly fast but hit a consistent 3:13 on both of them. Then, the wheels came off as I turned into the wind for the final two.

I struggled on the third repeat (all of it into the wind) but managed to eke out a 3:19. I was gassed, though, and ended up walking nearly all of the succeeding recovery, making it nearly twice as long as the prior two. Reluctantly, I started the fourth repeat, still heading into the wind, and it got so awful that I had to stop and walk briefly just as I was about to turn out of the wind for the final quarter-mile. I ended up posting a 3:21 on that repeat but only because I really pushed on the final couple tenths. Definitely NOT textbook.

I've got to give myself a bit of a flyer on today's performance. The splits might've been a little more even had I done them on the track (since the effects of the wind would've been generally negated). Regardless, I got the desired training benefit, which is what matters.