Ugh. The summer heat finally claimed its first workout casualty.
At least I finished the workout, but it wasn't pretty. 85F direct sun Attempted
8x1k with 2 min rest on a measured section of road near my home. Ended
up doing 6x1k with avg 2:45 recovery and 5x400 w/45 sec recovery Did
1.5 warmup, stretched, then got going. Times were as follows.
3:19 (too fast I knew with the heat I was looking for 3:24 but it was slightly downhill with a tailwind)
3:24 (as usual second one gets on pace)
3:25 (this one hurt more than it should have being the downhill stretch again)
3:32 (uphill with the headwind I just couldn't hold onto it without
compromising the rest of the workout took a 4 min rest after this one
to try to get fresh again)
3:24 (the 4min break helped but I knew it wouldn't last)
3:41 (I thought about quiting at this point but I know what VO2max pace
feels like and this felt like it despite being darn slow, I decided
instead of quiting to do 5x400 with 100 rest to finish out the volume
of the workout at least, took another 4min recovery)
80 (perfect, didnt even feel too bad)
79
79 (ouch, heat and short rests starting to catch up to me again)
84 (wow, felt much faster than that)
79 (I totally kicked on this one, I couldnt help it, my times were so
terrible I wanted to hit pace for the last one and my legs were not
really hurting much during the workout, mostly cardiovascular pain so I
went anaerobic in the last 200 and still had only a mediocre time)
1.5 cool down (still 85 degrees so not exactly cool, I wouldn't have
gone this far except my measured bit of road is 1.5 miles from my home) 15min ice bath in case I went too hard on this workout. I
almost never die in workouts. My times are always spot on or if any
variation get faster throughout the workout. I might try the indoor
track at vandy or the treadmill for my next VO2max workout. Here are
the possible reasons that this workout went poorly. 1. heat 2. lost fitness 3. 70mpw is wearing on me 4. lack of recent speed work made this harder than usual psychologically or physiologically 5.
first serious VO2max workout alone (unlikely, psychologically I was
strong to finish the workout, I kept trying to relax in my pace,
forcing a 2-2 breath pattern until I just couldn't maintain it anymore,
I also tried starting each rep slow enough to maintain but every one
was really really tough) Conclusion: Bad times, but again, I know
what VO2max feels like and this was it. And 5 miles of it. Alone.
Race times are worse in the heat so I should get used to workout times
being slower. But I need to figure out what pace I need to go to stay
consistent. And I think I like the 4x5x400 workout better than 8x1k as
well. | 