Nasty workout planned for today. Fartlek in minutes with half rests 11, 9.7.5.3.1.3.5.7.9.11, so 71 minutes hard, lots of minutes easy. This is basically a workout for Ali, who is targeting the World 1/2 Marathon Championships in 3 weeks. She felt rather trashed today from Tuesday's workout still (only 34 hours since we did it). I thought we should be targeting 3:50 pace, but she didn't seem chipper and the whole point of the workout is to progressively suffer, which I knew we would given the sun rising, so I went the pace she was going for the first couple. Warmed up just over 3k then did 11 minutes in 3:57 pace, then 9 minutes in 3:59 pace. By the end of the 9 min she was about 3-5 seconds back and it was clear that she was not going to be able to hang on well. Did 3:57 pace on the 7 min, still hoping to pull her along, then 3:56 for the 5 min, then 3:50 for the 3 min, then 3:38 pace for the 1 min, then I gave myself a full minute of rest (instead of 30 seconds, then did 3:52 pace for 3 min, then gave myself 2:30 rest (giving myself half time of the longer rep ahead of me). It was getting hot and I was unsure of my ability to finish the workout. This is especially because Ali had dropped off, and the whole point was to help her, so mentally I was weak (what am I doing this workout for? this bad psychology bites me later on--read on). 3:54 pace for the 5 min, then 3:59 pace for the 7 min -- starting to suffer here. I started into the 9 minute and was on pace after 3 minutes, but when I looked at my watch and saw that 3 minutes had passed and there were 6 to go, I just pretty much lost it. My legs unwound, and I asked myself why push on, and I didn't have the toughness to say TO BE TOUGH DMN IT! So that was 3:16 minutes at 3:52 pace (see I was doing fine).Anyway, I was very tired by then and had a long rest to the next water fountain (almost 11 minutes). Meanwhile I thought about the meaning of life, whether it did or did not revolve around distance running, and calculated that I had done 54 minutes of hard running. So I decided to get a drink then do one last 6 minute push to get to 60 minutes. I did the 6 min push in 3:59 ave pace. Then slow 2k jog to the MTR. 26.5k total. Very long workout for midweek for me. Total of 15.4k hard in 60:30, 3:55.8/k ave. PM: 5 miles on the tm easy (ave 7:56/mi), inverse sit ups, two pull ups. I haven't done pull ups in months! It strained some muscles I have been neglecting :D | 