Today was one of those days. I did not want to do this workout. I don't know why, but I just didn't feel up to the hard work. But I did it anyway, and I did work very hard. However, the results were less than satisfactory.
I got to the track, and at least it wasn't raining. It was 48F (8C) with 20 mph winds. Ugh. I did see some snowflakes later in the workout. But I am getting ahead of myself. When I pulled my car up to the track, there was nowhere to park, and I had to park across the street. That meant one thing: the running club was there. Double ugh. They are very nice, but it just gets crowded, and since they are faster, I typically have to move over a few lanes. I briefly thought about going home and doing my workout on the treadmill, or taking it somewhere else outside, but decided I didn't have enough time for that (I still have to get to work on time!). The runners in the club are really good runners - they are quite speedy, and I always feel a bit like a tortoise to their hare.
I was to do 3k/2k/0.5k/0.5k at 90-95% effort with 3 min recovery. I started off with 1600m warm-up (slooooow - in 10:50, despite accelerating at the end), and then some flexibility drills. Then I started the 3k. I figured I could at least do under 18:00. Not! My legs felt tired and heavy, and my form didn't feel smooth at all. Despite giving it what I swear was a good and very hard effort, my heart rate only averaged 159 (166 max) and I finished in 18:12. Bummer. It was crowded, though, and I had to be in lanes 3-4 for a good part of the time because of the runners, so I'm sure that cost me some time. Still, no excuses. It wasn't good.
I kept going, because darn it, I was going to finish this workout even if I did suck at it this morning. I surprised myself by managing to keep the same pace for the 2K (exactly!), finishing in 12:08, with ave HR 160, max 167. I still felt so draggy and my heart rate was not that high for how lousy I felt.
After I finished the 2K I was relieved, and figured I could pull off the 500m with no problem. The first one felt hard, and I had a nasty intestinal cramp in the middle (note to self: you are getting lactose intolerant and cannot eat even a little frozen yogurt the night before a hard workout!) but kept going and finished in 2:59 with ave HR 151 (low! but a shorter interval so that makes sense) and max 161 (this should have been higher...probably didn't push hard enough? It sure FELT hard). Finally, I did the last 500m and gave it everything I had to finish in 2:53, ave HR 154, max 166.
Now that I'm done I don't even really feel very good. Intestines are most displeased, and I just feel tired and kind of lousy. Usually I get an endorphin rush from these workouts...not today. I really felt like I was giving it my best 90-95% effort, and my times were so slow. I feel a bit discouraged, but I am trying as hard as I can to remind myself that everyone has an "off" day now and then.
Maybe it's the weather. I'm sick of cold, snow, rain, etc., and my mood seems to be mirroring the climate or something. Somehow I've gotta turn this around. I have two more really hard workouts this week and my mind is not up to it.
The good news is my foot didn't hurt. My stupid ingrown toenail is still not 100% but everything else hurt so much that I didn't think much about that pain in comparison.
Great. Now I'm going to be late to work, too :(. Oh well...
2 comments:
Tammy, you're tough. Sorry about the less than ideal workout. When you work that hard, you at least deserve some good endorphins. But I am confident that despite what the clock says, you have just trained your body to be stronger and speedier the next time. Have faith!
Congratulations! There will be races in which things get tough, and you've just practiced pushing through it. Well done. :-)
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