Track workout!

After Monday nights long workout I was anxious to see how the legs would feel this morning when I woke up. Yesterday I just did an easy 5-miler at maybe 7:30 pace to let the legs rest a bit but there was still some ongoing soreness/tightness when I headed to bed. 
Luckily, thanks to icing, my foam rolling habits and my wonderful Rico-fit compression socks (which I have been living in for almost every minute (except when running) for the past 5-6 weeks now), I woke up feeling pretty good. It was still TBD how I would feel in tonight's long track workout, but at least I figured I could power thru rather than having to move it to tomorrow night for another easy days rest.
I will say, heading to the track on your own for a long workout SUCKS! It's definitely not like the old days in Chicago when we would all meet up at Fleet Feet and 10-30 of us would jog over to the track together before getting in to the workout. I really disliked the weather back there but really took for granted how much the camaraderie of it all made the workouts easier. I guess, if nothing else, doing workouts like these on your own makes you mentally tougher and forces you to keep your pace in check versus some of the times when the group would push the pace way too much, too early.

Anyway, tonight I had a workout that in the past I would of thought of as HELL, but that I didn't really mind. It was:
2-mile easy warmup
4 x 1-mile at T-pace (5:54*)
5min easy jog
3 x 1-mile at T-pace (5:54*)
2-mile easy warmdown

I completed the workout but didn't stick to the above * (T-pace). It's been a bit tough for me to gauge where my real VDOT level should be since the tables (in the book) don't take into account altitude. I look at my times from races at altitude and it tells me that I should be in the 59-61 range, but then when I look at what those times would be at sea-level, I would be in 62-64 range. That's a pretty wide range when it's all said and done! (a T-pace of anywhere from 5:59 to 5:36). SO, I started this program assuming the easiest of the range (59) and using all of those paces. After the past few weeks and the 10-miler, I have bumped that up to the VDOT 60, since the book says to only go up one level every 3-4 weeks at most.

All of that said, I have basically been disregarding the suggested T-paces during my hard workouts and just going at a pace that feels comfortable. That pace is significantly faster than either of the VDOT levels I have been training at but it seems like the sense of the Jack Daniel's program is to run hard on hard days and easy on easy days. As long as I stick to that, I think I'll be okay... any input from anyone out there in the online-world?!?

Back to tonight! I did the workout on the local high school track. A storm was moving in so it was pretty windy on the back stretch, but otherwise conditions were perfect. Here's how it went:

4 x 1-mile on 1min rest (5:48, 5:42, 5:43, 5:41)
5mins easy jog
3x 1-mile on 1min rest (5:39, 5:39, 5:29)

Only felt out of my comfort zone on the final one, so I am super happy with how it went and am actually beginning to worry because these longer, fast workouts are going SO easily. I'm only 1/2 way through the training program and in the best run shape that I've been in since college!!