from high to low in mere minutes

It started off as a great morning, and it all came crashing down in a matter of minutes.

I was to do a 10K kickdown, which means 4x2.5K with each one progressively faster. Jim wanted me to start the first one at 6:30/km and then do 6:20/km, 6:10/km, and all-out. I was nervous about this workout because he wanted me to start so fast, and I didn't sleep well because of the anxiety. Pretty silly, no?

I ate a banana because my legs felt a little shaky from the coffee I drank last night, and headed out the door. I drove to Liberty Park, because I was going to a Weight Watchers meeting right after that and didn't want to have to walk all the way home (slowly) again. I also didn't want to do the last 2K home as the end of my kickdown because it's uphill.

I started at the north end of the park and walked through the center and kept going south on 600E to the 2.5km mark (just shy of 2100S). I took a brisk pace, a tiny bit faster than I intended to start but pretty close. I did the first 2.5 km in 16:08 (goal was 16:15) at 6:27/km with ave HR of 147. It felt very good - I felt so smooth and wonderful this morning!!! I believe that this was a very slight uphill (very very slight!).

The next 2.5K I turned up the heat a little, but still felt quite comfortable. I went back to my starting point, so it was a very slight downhill. I really did keep it comfortable, with an ave HR of 152 (max 159) but when I pressed the lap button at the 5K mark, it said the 2nd 2.5K was in 15:33. Uh-oh, I thought, seriously uh-oh, that was too fast. But I felt great and thought, well, let's just see what happens.

The last 5K I did just going around the park, which is pretty flat but does have some slight uphill (the south end) and slight downhill (the north end). I have 1 and 0.5 km splits for the last 5K. I got to 6K in 6:05 with ave HR of 160 (max 164) and thought "Wow, I'm fast today" and "I hope I can hold this pace". I was breathing hard, but comfortably hard at this point, so kept going. I got to 7K in 6:06, ave HR 161 (max 167)! Wow! I started having thoughts of finishing this well! The next 0.5km was in 2:54 (um, that was FAST!) with ave HR of 165 and max 167.

I still felt like I had another gear, though. I was ecstatic that things were going so well, and felt like I would have an amazing 10K. I pushed harder, taking it to the max. I was still breathing comfortably hard through 8K; that 0.5K was in 2:52 with ave HR 168 (max 170), but then took it up a notch through 9K and was breathing very hard and giving it my all. I got to 9.03K (missed the split a little) in 6:16.1 with ave HR of 170 (max 171) - apparently I slowed here, probably because this was around the south side of the park where there is a hill; I was giving it the same effort. The last 0.97km I blasted out in only 5:37 (got to do the slight downhill on N side of park on this one) with ave HR of 171 and max of 174.

Incredible. I was so fast today, and it was the most amazing feeling. The last 5K was in 29:51 (or thereabouts!), and the first 5K was in 31:41 (and that was taking it relatively easy!) for a total of 61:32!!!!! If I had raced the whole thing, I might have broken 60 min for the 10K!!!

Sadly, that is probably not to be. Within 1 min of slowing (I turned around and started racewalking very very slowly back to the car), my right foot was excruciating. I had to stop racewalking and just walk. Even that really, really hurt. I limped very slowly (9:41/km) back to the car for the 416m back (according to my Garmin), sobbing and screaming "NO NO NO" the whole time. Tears running down my cheeks, I stretched on the car, sobbing and continuing to say "NO NO NO". I'm sure if anyone walked by (and maybe someone did - I was unaware) they thought I was nuts.

Elation to despair.

Now I'm icing my foot (almost 4 hr later after WW meeting and kids' swim lessons) and despairing.