hot 5K fartlek

It was hot this morning. Yesterday it was 102F (39C) in the afternoon, and when it gets that hot, the mornings aren't usually very cool either. This morning it was 79F (26.1C) and quite humid by our desert standards at 46%. I figured it might be a slow morning because of that if nothing else. This is the warmest morning I remember here in a LONG time.

I had a good workout. Yeah, the heat got to me at the end and I slowed down, but it was a good hard workout and I gave it my all. I was only 19 seconds slower than my last 5K fartlek, even though it was 14 degrees F warmer.

I decided to go to Liberty Park instead of doing the 5K fartlek on the street like I've been doing. I was just in the mood for something different, and I was also worried about possible intestinal distress because I ate pizza last night (Liberty Park has convenient restrooms!). The intestinal distress never materialized, thankfully, but I was still glad I went there.

I warmed up with the walk over to the park, and I used the restroom before I started, so I ended up starting in the middle of the park. I did my dynamic flexibility drills, and then steeled myself for the upcoming pain :). I knew somehow that this would be a tough one.

I felt OK for the first 3K, but then I knew I was dragging from the heat. I just didn't have anything left in the tank. I passed my friends Sarah, Jessica, and Sarah just around the 4.5K mark and said hi but of course did not stop. I didn't know they were at the park and I was glad to see them. It gave me motivation to give it my all for the last 0.5K, which was on the uphill end of the park (uh, why in the world did I arrange it to end on an uphill?!?) and thus even more painful. Yeah, the last 0.5K was really slow despite working really hard.

Here are my splits:
1K fast 5:38, HR 157 ave/169 max
500m med 3:02, HR 163/169
500m fast 2:40, HR 170/172
500m med 3:16, HR 166/172
500m fast 2:54, HR 173/175
500m med 3:13, HR 167/175
500m fast 2:53, HR 172/174
500m med 3:21, HR 166/174
500m fast 3:04, HR 174/176
Total time: 30:04

As you can see, I totally died at the end. My last "fast" 500m was slower than my first "medium" 500m. Ouch. And that last 500m medium in 3:21 was not very speedy either. Oh well...heat will do that to you. I'm trying to stay as positive as possible, though I'm a bit disappointed that the heat got to me so much. The 5K in Sacramento could be hot, as it's at 9:15 am. I didn't have time to do as much heat training as I'd like, so I'll just have to go with what I've done and visualize a great race anyway.

In a little side note, I went to my Weight Watchers meeting this morning and they handed out a sheet on positive self-talk. I know I need to work on this in conjunction with my racewalking, so it was very apropos. Funny, I've seen that handout a million times and feel like I do pretty well on it as regards my eating, but I know that I've been weak on that with racewalking. So this week I'm going to visualize lots of speed, lots of stamina, and think positive as much as I can. I think it will be a challenge, but in the spirit of positive self-talk, I think I can do it. End side note :).

I was happy to be at Liberty Park again when I finished. There's a natural spring water fountain at the southeast corner, where I finished, and I liberally splashed the cool water all over and had a long drink. It felt great!!! Then I enjoyed some conversation with the Sarahs and Jessica before walking home. My legs were pretty trashed on the uphill home.

Garmin workout data.

This was my last really hard workout before my races next weekend; I do have 3x800m on Tuesday, but that's such a short workout that it barely counts. I'm glad to be done with the hard work. Now I'm ready to race (positive self-talk)!!!