15K kickdown

The weather was better today. 68F (20C) when I started, and 70F (21C) when I finished. The humidity was about 40% when I started, which I think is pretty average here for mornings; it felt fine - not too humid, probably because there wasn't much cloud cover. It's supposed to get up to 95F (35C) today, which is a pretty normal late July day.

True confession time: I'd been dreading this workout a bit. I did a 4-split 15K kickdown in the summer of 2011 and it was 1:31:37, which was good for me at the time. Then I had a very disastrous 3-split 15K kickdown in late December 2011, right before the 50K race. I'd been swimming for x-training the day before and did a bit too much for my legs. It hurt...and I still remember that! I did 1:31:34 and barely broke 30 min on the last 5K! Ouch! Even though my legs were fresh this morning, I still had a bit of apprehension about it.

Coach said to do 6:10/km for the first 5K, 6:00 for the second 5K, and then all-out the last 5K. I followed his instructions really well, I'm happy to say! I did have to stop briefly to drink a bit/refill water bottles - though it was not as hot as it's been, I decided I needed to drink and I'm really glad I did. Despite drinking 36 oz, I still lost 32 oz in sweat during the workout!

I felt pretty good today. The first 5K felt totally fine; a nice easy pace. The second 5K was moderately hard, and the last 5K was a hard effort. Splits: 30:54 (ave HR 139), 29:45 (HR 154, 1:00:38 for 10K), 28:49 (HR 164). Total: 1:29:27 for the 15K, 2 min faster than my previous best (though since my previous best was lousy, that's not saying much?!?). Still, I'm happy with the workout, and relieved it's over.

Garmin data here.