High 50s F, patchy light fog becoming heavy towards end of solo run. Objective: 1st run = solo w/ VO2 & leg strength (hill repeats), 2nd run = barefoot w/ SnoFlake. Hill repeats: warmed ~3.5 miles, then went to 15% grade hill and ran 6 x 1 min hard, 2 min recovery. Garmin data: All reps covered .11 mile in 8:56, 8:42, 9:07, 9:05, 9:27, 9:15. Cool down: a few more miles, easy.
I'm not sure what to make of my effort today. I really struggled with the hill repeats and did not perform them as well as I did 2 weeks ago. Maybe I had fresher legs then, or maybe I'm having an "off" day, I don't know. It doesn't really matter; I did my best and I am sure I will get the same benefit. After the first 3 reps, I realized that I was not recovering completely, even though I walked almost the entire 2 minutes, panting all the way, so I added another 30 seconds to recovery after reps 3-5. My understanding of VO2 recoveries (from my Daniels dvd) is that they should be complete. Even with the extended recovery, I had more and more trouble keeping up my pace at the ends of each rep, falling apart the last 15 seconds or so. Usually it's just the lungs that give out, but today it was the legs too. Fall is on the way. Same workout as two weeks ago, same time and place -- but 2 weeks ago it was completely light out (though the sun wasn't up yet) and today it was completely dark! The days will now get shorter very quickly. Like a car that seems to creep along when far away and then goes whipping past you on a highway, the autumnal equinox this month will bring a sudden and dramatic shift in daylight to these northern latitudes. Thank goodness for headlamps. I love fall more than any other season and the first of September is always welcome. But to get fog too... great day! And I had a very enjoyable barefoot run w/ SnoFlake as well. We kept it short, since she is understandably tired from gymnastics last night.
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