Pushing through Another Big Workout

OBJECTIVE
8 mi. including warm-up; 7 x 2 min.@ 6:26/mi. & 2 min. jogging recovery; cool down

ACHIEVED
8.37 mi.@ 8:05/mile including
2.42 mi.@ 8:39/mile
6:43/
6:16/
6:18/
6:20/
6:10/
6:09/
6:04/
2.33 mi.@ 8:02/mile

5:51 AM 63° 100% 3 mph

So the ominous, midweek run started out as usual ... with me dreading it! It rained hard overnight so everything was wet but it didn't rain on me at all during the run. I started from the Y and shortly after getting underway, I realized that I had started my Garmin as a regular workout rather than an interval workout. Fortunately, I caught this early and once I reached the end of the first mile, I stopped, saved the first mile, and started a new interval workout. When I uploaded the runs later at the house, I just combined them and it came out just fine on the motionbased.com website.

After coming up a bit short on the pace over the first 2.42 miles (8:39 vs. 8:38 per mile), I started down the gully path on the first of 7 intervals. For some reason, I had a difficult time shifting gears and getting up to speed. The first interval came in at 6:43/mile while the target was 6:26/mile. Maybe I was distracted by how much water was flowing down the gully this morning after the rainstorm. It was practically a raging river. It's usually a modest stream. The rest of the intervals came in well under the prescribed 6:26 pace. The fourth one was the slowest at 6:20 and that one included the turnaround point so I lost speed and the GPS most-likely calculated me as standing still for longer than it actually took me to turnaround.

After the seventh and fastest interval (6:04 pace), I jogged for 2 minutes then picked it up for the car. I wanted to run the final 2.3 miles around 8:30 pace but was pleasantly surprised to manage an 8:02 pace which felt fairly comfortable.

Upon completion while still walking to the car, I clicked through my interval times as I really don't get the opportunity to see them during the run. The Garmin automatically triggers the intervals and the screen clears before I see what my last interval time was. I was surprised this was a really solid workout. I usually can feel early on if I'm having a good day and a solid effort. This feeling feeds on itself and oftentimes results in a good day of running. Today wasn't like that. It wasn't a grind but it didn't feel like a strong day either. I felt like a was giving a great effort but didn't seem to be yielding any special result. Anyway, I was very happy with today's result.

I don't understand all the physiology behind the midweek Big Workout. But it has something to do with getting miles and speed work all in one workout. The way the speed work is constructed, the body is conditioned to become more efficient at clearing the waste generated by the anaerobic effort. I think today's result suggests that my conditioning is ahead of where I am in my training cycle. Next week will be a good gauge of this theory. The midweek workout will add a mile and two more intervals to the mix. That should give me an idea of where my recovery capability really stands.

Looking forward to an easy one tomorrow!

PRE RUN
water, FRS & oatmeal w/brown sugar & 1% milk

POST RUN
weight = 158#
SlimFast, chocolate milk, water, multivitamin, Honeynut Cheerios w/1% milk