25K

Well, it's done. I'm very tired. Whew.

It was 70F (21C) when I started, cooler than it has been but still quite warm for me. By the time I finished, however, it was 80F (27C) and I was hot. The route I used today was pretty shady, as the streets here are tree-lined, but by the end the sun was high enough that it was only maybe 50% shaded. Hot.

I was supposed to do this workout fast, i.e. low 6-min/km. I knew I wouldn't be able to do that. Weak, I know. I feel mentally weak lately. Today when I got to 12km I was sorely tempted to quit. My legs felt tired and I was hot, and well, I felt a bit like a failure. The negative thinking was kicking in. I did manage to make that voice shut up and I did finish the walk pretty well, considering. I don't know how I did it, but the last 12.5km (1:20:09) was only a little slower than the first 12.5km (1:19:33). That's good given my state of mind. After cutting 2km off of yesterday's workout and doing today's 20 sec/km slower than I was supposed to, it's tough to stay positive.

Fueling: ate a banana before I left, and took Clif Shot Bloks at 10km and 18km. Drank 92 oz (2721 ml) of water/electrolyte replacement, and still weighed 2.4 lb (1.09 kg) less when I got back. That's a total of 8.15 pounds (3.8 kg) lost through sweat/potty stop (just one; no GI problems today). Better than on Saturday, when I drank 112 oz (3312 ml) and weighed 3.2 lb (1.45 kg) less than when I started (10.2 lb or 4.6 kg lost!). This weather is a killer. At least it's dry here. Humidity would make it much worse. It was 49% humidity when I started, but down to 27% when I finished. Now it's only 15% (at 2 pm) but it's 100F (38C). Hot.

Total: 2:39:41 for 6:23/km with ave HR 142. It felt harder than the HR shows. 5K splits: 31:27, 31:50, 32:26, 31:50, 32:08. Not too bad.

Garmin data here.

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I'm hoping my workouts will turn a corner soon and that I'll start feeling better. It's not very fun to do them when you put in a lot of effort each time and the results are not good. Adding miles plus doing them in hot weather does make it tough, but I'm still hoping that my body will adjust soon. It had better, or I'm not sure I'll be able to keep this up.