10K kickdown - HUGE PR!

I felt fresh and rested this morning. My legs weren't really that sore after the 25K on Thursday, and so I felt pretty good even yesterday. By this morning, I felt great. I was to do a 10K kickdown in four splits of 2.5K, each progressively faster and the last all-out.

I decided to go later than usual so it would be slightly warmer and the sun would be out. Then I wouldn't have to wear all the reflective gear, and it's mentally so much better to be in the sun than in the dark. I just had to teach a couple piano students later in the morning, so I figured an 8am-ish start would work. It was more like 8:45 by the time I started though!

It was quite cold this morning. My thermometer at home said 16F (-9C). By the time I got back home from the workout it was up to 24F, which is still pretty cold! Still, with the sun out, it wasn't too bad. I wore my tights and a long-sleeved shirt, with fleece layers on top of that, my balaclava, and my fleece headband, plus my gloves. It was just right.

I started off a little awkwardly for the first 500m but soon settled in and once my HR monitor calmed down my HR was in the low 140s and I was doing a good 6:10/km. Nice! My first 2.5K was 3:04.0, 3:07.7, 3:05.5, 3:04.0, 3:02.6 for a total of 15:23.8. (Oh, and the little HR dip was when my piano student for this morning called me...I had to stop and take care of business quickly!). That first 2.5K was faster than I'd planned, but my HR was low and I felt good. The next 2.5K was the slight downhill (very slight) into the park and I took advantage of it, doing 2:56.3, 2:59.4, 2:58.8, 3:04.5 (this split on this part of the park is always slower - weird!), 2:59.6 for a total of 14:58.6 and still feeling great. Now I was thinking this was gonna be a good one! I was psyched!

I knew I'd have to work the third 2.5K as it's a very slight uphill grade, and I did kick it down faster, going 2:56.1, 2:57.2, 2:55.6, 2:59.0, 2:53.4 for a total of 14:41.3. I knew I still had just a little left, and the slight downhill helped as I raced back into the park. I was really working it hard and it felt tough but I felt strong and knew I had it in me to finish well. I was surprisingly fast, doing 2:49.3, 2:46.2, 2:48.4, 2:55.4 (that's that slow split in the park!), 2:49.2 for 14:08.5! Average HR for the workout (substituting 142 for the funky spiking intervals at the start) was 156, and I was up to a max of 175 at the end, which shows how hard I worked this one. And yeah, the last 5K was 28:50 :).

These hard workouts mess with your brain - at the end, I was looking at my watch and thinking I wasn't going to break 60 min and was disappointed...then the watch turned over from :59 to :00 and it was at 59 not 60! Haha couldn't even read my watch!

Total time was 59:12.2, smashing my old PR of 60:28 by over a minute and giving me lots of confidence in my body and my training as I approach the 50K race, which is now just 2 weeks from today.