Week 10 – Key Run Workout #1

Not many good things to say about this workout I’m afraid – the only adjective that springs to mind is “disappointing”. I might have known it was going to be one of those runs when I switched on my Garmin pre-run and got the dreaded “Low Battery” message. Oh well. I knew what I had to do and already had a 1200m route mapped out from a workout earlier in the year, so off I went on an extended warm up.

Surprise, surprise, it was hot again – 95°F actually. Humidity was high and the winds were picking up – 15-20mph with gusts up to 31mph according to weather.com. Can’t you tell I was really psyching myself up for this one! I probably ran 3 miles for my warm up, hoping to flush out the aches and pains from Sunday’s 20 mile long run. That plan didn’t work. My legs felt heavy on the first 1200m loop, and I could only manage a 4:29 when I was aiming for 4:09. The worst part was I wasn’t holding back and felt like I didn’t have much more to offer.

After 2 minutes of rest, I set off again and this time managed a 4:25. Slightly quicker, but more of a struggle. Loop 3 was a sluggish 4:27 and loop 4 a lung busting 4:27. I told myself I only had 2 more 1200m’s to go, but a third of the way through the 5th loop, I stopped – I literally had nothing left. I don’t remember the last time my legs felt this heavy and I felt so drained. Maybe Sunday’s long run took more out of me than I first thought?

Back at the car I was able to drink a little (funny thing is, despite the heat, I wasn’t that thirsty), before jogging a slow mile as kind of a cool down. I was half tempted to try and finish the workout and run another 2 loops, but I thought better of it and drove home instead! I’ll need all the energy I can muster up for tomorrow’s 10 mile run at Planned Marathon Pace. My legs ache just thinking about it….