Track workout Tuesday! 4:55am came very early this morning. It was very warm and very dark. I love weaving through road construction junk in the dark! I'm not sure why speed workouts stress me out so much. They keep me up at night and give me knots in my stomach. Maybe it is the thought of going to that deep dark spot that is going to hurt, make you puke, make you have the runs, and all the other glorious parts of running. But that dark spot sure had me in a tizzy today! The goal was 8x400 with a 200 rest. I'm still unsure of what I should be running these at (I need to do some research), but I knew I could do 5-6 at 1:33ish. So I was hoping to start a bit slower and maintain the last 4-5 reps at that time. 1.5 mile warm up
1-1:38 2-1:35 3-1:34 4-1:33 5-1:32 6-1:35 7-1:34 8-1:32 1.5 miles cool down
Number 6 and 7, I mentally was really hurting. I was tired and my body was starting to hurt. The RIGHT thing to do would have been to just push through all the junk in my body and mind. But I didn't and I let it take over me. That makes me mad and frustrated at myself. When I got home, I looked at my times from the last time I did 8/9 400's and these are still faster (those were in the 1:38-1:40). That did make me feel better, but I was still disappointed. Sometimes I feel like the more I run, the slower I get. As I watched the women's Olympic marathon, I heard an announcer say (paraphrased) regarding Kara Goucher that it takes years and many many races to become "hard". Your body has to get use to the pounding and the pain, to learn how to race hard and mentally to overcome the body's resistance. I guess I still have a ways too go. Marathon #3 is only 7 weeks away. 3 more HARD weeks of training and a few rest and taper weeks. I can make it 3 weeks. Right? Hardly any nap this morning as I had a doctor appointment to have my ankle checked out. Podiatrist quickly said I needed 2 cortisone shorts. I wasn't expecting that....more strengthening exercises and RICE. Now my foot is totally numb and hurts. And I'm feeling the effects of getting up at 4:55am. Blech.... PM: Beat down from my trainer tonight. I always feel stronger when I meet with her at night. Probably because I'm not as tired :) Working out with her is comparable to getting my hair done.....sitting in the hair dresser chair=confession time/get things off my chest (sort of). So my trainer heard all my running woes tonight and gave me some really great advice. I appreciate her listening!
She ran for BYU and has run a few marathon and I feel like she has some smart knowledge. She said that I can't tap into the strong Aerobic base unless I do some Anaerobic stuff (something like that). She suggested that I add one more day of threshold runs to my routine. Do an all out 5 min sprint/5min rest - 3 min sprint/3 min rest - 1 min sprint/1 min rest. Maybe do track/hills on Monday and TR on Wednesdays, long run on Saturday and the rest of the week just get my weekly mileage. I hope I can make it work and start running a bit faster. Ankle is still very sore and hurts to touch it (slightly swollen too). I've never had that happen before with shots. I hope I haven't messed up my race on Saturday.
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