Tuesday, August 16, 2011

10K fartlek - another new PR for the workout

You never know what is going to come out on any given day. This morning I was very tired and my legs were still a bit sore from the 30K on Sunday. I did not want to do a 10K fartlek, that's for sure. But I knew I'd feel better after it was done, so off to the track I went.

The track was not crowded today. Just a few people there, no football players, and no running club. Yay! The weather was pretty nice, too, at 63F (17C); it was quite humid at 65% but it felt OK. I got hot at the end when the sun came out, but other than that it was fine.

I warmed up, starting at 6:30/km pace and accelerating to about 5:50/km at the end, doing 1600m in 10:11. I felt stiff to start, but after the 1600 my legs felt better and I was as ready as I was going to be.

I tried to take it pretty easy to start, and after that I just tried to stay consistent and keep my HR from getting too high. I wanted to be sure that I wasn't exerting too much effort, since I am racewalking Wednesday-Friday as well (this week my cross-training day is Saturday). That strategy seemed to work, as this was one of the most consistent 10K fartleks I've ever done. I will admit that on the last two hard 500s I did push a little bit but still was comfortably hard and not all-out. It seemed good at the moment, and hopefully it wasn't too fast. My average HR for the workout was 157, which is 2 beats less than last week, so I think I was successful at not pushing too hard (though I did have to stop for 30 sec at 6km to take a drink - was sweating and very thirsty - which surely impacted the average a little).

Total time was 59:13, a new PR for the workout by 10 seconds. The first km was 5:41 and the medium 500s were 3:00-3:08. The fast 500s were all 2:49-2:52 - so consistent!

All the endorphins helped my mood a lot, happily. I felt much better once I was done. Now that it's lunch time, I'm still feeling pretty good, though I'm very sleepy and could really use a nap. Not going to get one, but maybe I can get to bed early. Haha...wishful thinking. And my legs are definitely sore; not horribly so, but it seems like a perpetual state these days as we ramp things up. However, I'm happy that's the only thing I have to complain about. I'm healthy and training and it's good.

Garmin connect data here.

1 comment:

Nyle said...

What a great workout!! really nice and consistant.

Its awesome to hear that all your injuries have healed and the body is enjoying the ramp up of training....all be it a little sore :)

Keep it up...you know the results you will get will make it all worth it.