Usually

I made my usual trip to the track yesterday morning and ran into the usual crowd of 75 or so marathonfesters doing their speed work. What was unusual was how late they were there. I usually get in my first repeat just before all of them head to the cars and leave me to myself (with an extra hour sleep than them).
I checked their markerboard under the lantern light to see they were all doing ladder repeats of 400-800-1200-1200-800-400. That should not have taken so long. Regardless, it was more invigorating to me to have all the others there running and recovering from the repeats. It started up my competitive juices.
My plan called for 5x1200. I did not feel particularly strong. My legs were still tired from Saturday. What was unusual yesterday was the higher humidity. It had been unusually dry here for a week or more without the usual afternoon thunderstorms. (That usually means no hurricanes are lurking around either.) So when it finally rained on Sunday and Monday the morning heat and dampness brought out the sweat. Between the marathonfesters and me, we must have perspirated a good 125 pounds yesterday morning. That's a foul visual thought. Sorry.
So my 5x12s went slower than I expected but I will allow for the legs and conditions. The splits were 6:14, 6:02, 6:11, 6:10 and 6:12. Not even 5K pace. Eh. So much for that.
There's a 5k on Sunday that opens the fall racing season around here. I have 15 miles to do for my long run. Maybe I'll run to the race site, race and run home the long way. Yeah; that has merit. I'll have to plot the route tonight.
Data recap: 8 uses of the word usual or variations thereof in this post. Ack!