I dreaded these for the first two weeks. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, before the alarm even finished going off, some part of my brain was already negotiating for an easy run instead.
Block 1 of training for Grindstone is intervals: the stage in Jason Koop's periodization that looks the least like the actual race, and not coincidentally, the stage I look forward to the least. The point of it is building leg speed and a tolerance for discomfort before the miles start stacking up. I laid out the full plan a few weeks back if you want the structure end to end. This post recaps how Block 1 actually went. Eight sessions, Tuesdays and Thursdays, four weeks, June 2 through June 25. Short hard reps at 6:00 minute per mile pace, three minutes on, three minutes jogging it out, repeat.
Seven of the eight happened exactly as written. The eighth didn't.
The One I Skipped
June 9 was the third interval session of the block. It was humid, and I was already flat from the week before. I went out anyway. About ten minutes in, it was clear the interval version of this run wasn't happening, so I didn't force it. I ran the same amount of time at an easy, conversational pace and called it a recovery day instead. My watch backed up the decision after the fact. Heart rate topped out at 136 the entire run, compared to 166 on my first interval session and 167 on my last. That wasn't a workout I talked myself out of. That was a workout my body wasn't going to let me do.
What Changed After That
The dread didn't go away, but something shifted after that skipped day. The next session, I went in expecting to suffer and instead felt strong through all six reps. That held for most of the back half of the block. The work didn't get easier. I just stopped bracing for it the same way. By the last session on June 25, the dread was still there. It's smaller now, and it sits next to something that actually feels like accomplishment, which wasn't true in week one.
The Pace Held
The number that mattered most to me showed up on the watch, not in how I felt. On June 2, the first interval session, my actual reps came in at 5:35 to 5:51 per mile, faster than the 6:00 target. On June 25, the last session, reps were still 5:39 to 5:53. Same pace, three and a half weeks apart, while June got hotter the entire time, not cooler.
That consistency held even though the rep count moved around: 5 intervals, then 5, then the skipped day, then 6 for a few sessions, back down to 5, then 4 to close the block. That last drop wasn't fatigue catching up with me. It was on purpose. I wanted to walk into the Lake Erie Liberty 5k with legs that weren't shredded from interval work, so I tapered the reps down the same way I'd taper into any race.
Intervals weren't the only specific work this block carried, either. One Thursday in the middle of the block, June 11, I moved the session to the treadmill and added a 10 percent incline. Six reps at 6:30 pace, uphill the whole time. There's no elevation where I train, so this is as close as I can get to Grindstone's climbs without driving somewhere to find them.
And underneath all of it, the long runs kept building too. Three threaded through the block: 13.5 miles on June 5, the first day this summer the heat actually got to me, 9 miles on June 12, and 14.3 miles on June 19, a little past where I'd planned to stop that day, which felt fine at the time and still does looking back.
The 5k That Proved It
Block 1 ended on June 27 at the Lake Erie Liberty 5k. I wasn't racing it to chase a number. I was racing it to find out if six weeks of training actually meant anything. I ran 18:05, a 5:50 pace, well under what I thought I had in me going in. I felt strong the entire way, and after a block built on dreading every other workout, that's its own kind of answer (and accomplishment).
I also got to run back out on the course and help my son Thomas close out his race. It was only his second 5k ever. He was out on most of the course by himself. He ran an 8:08 pace and finished second in his age group. He's ten. Great work, Thomas!
Block 2 starts now: steady-state and tempo work, a step closer to what race day will actually feel like, before the endurance block turns this into long miles that genuinely resemble Grindstone. I'm not going to pretend I'm looking forward to it the way I look forward to long runs. But I know now that the dread isn't the same thing as the work not paying off.
