I should have waited there with you. 12 speed repeats were hard. The first few were OK but they got progressively harder and harder. I ran laps around a local walking loop that I thought would be easier than running back and forth along the same section of road. The walking trail is mostly flattish, but has a few inclines and declines. Nothing major but when you're running at a "challenging pace" it only makes it more challenging to throw in an incline and a bit of headwind for good measure. For the last couple I found the inclines were hurting my legs so I ran back and forth along a section of road instead. At least now they are done. I've got 14 of them to do on Wednesday. SOmetimes I wonder why I signed up for this plan, but the improvements in my fitness are very visible to me.
I kicked yesterday's speed repeats out until today and ended up canning the attempt. I got about 2/3 of the way through the first one before concluding that my legs really were telling me that it wasn't going to happen, and my pulse going much higher than I'd expected during the warmups kinda confirmed the message that it was a really bad idea to press on with the other 13 of them. So I'll kick it out again. With weather issues over the weekend I may end up just deleting it completely. I don't want to cancel workouts completely and don't want to abandon the plan but am finding the speed repeats in particular to become increasingly tedious.
It's been unseasonally warm here lately. Yesterday the temperature went into the 60s and today it's supposed to nudge into the 50s. I'm wondering if my legs will go along with the plan for the week's "long easy run" today. At least with these there are no speed expectations, it's about covering the distance and the coach makes it very clear that there is no such thing as "too slow" or "walking too much". That said, the speed guidelines he uses frequently end up being slower than the rate I'd expect to walk it, so I often disregard that side of things.
Though circumstances prevent my running, I vividly remember the last time I did at 4yrs of age. Ran down a 3 foot embankment. Thrilled me to no end. Old man got a kick out of that for years to come.
That's one thing I like about here - not a whole lot of wind when it's that cold. It was about -18°C this morning. Put some wind into that and its going to be -30° real fast.
"Long easy run" wasn't happening today - I felt like everything was just a bit off-kilter so decided not to push too far from home. During the afternoon I decided to suspend my training plan and do a shorter run instead. I've missed doing some of the shorter runs - as the training plan pushes ever-more speed repeats it's harder to fit them into my regular routes so I end up running laps of the park or endlessly back and forth along the closest thing I can find to a flat road. So today I used a short part of my regular route as a warm-up, then ran a little under 5 miles. Because I knew it was a shorter distance I decided to see how I could measure up against my shorter personal bests, and took nearly a minute off my 5k time. That was a good result, given I was struggling so badly with motivation. I need to get faster, as my target 10k time is a little under twice my 5k personal best, but today wasn't a great day so perhaps I can still hit the goal.
I believe a motivation crisis is largely just plain being tired - well, for some of us Work, sleep, eat and buzz with fatigue.
I've learned that sometimes I just need to start the workout and then everything falls into place. Often my head isn't in the kind of space that motivates me but if I get out and start moving I want to go further and faster. Other times my legs don't want to do anything but when I start a gentle warmup jog they decide they want to move. Other times nothing quite works out. It's hard to know which it's going to be before trying it but when even the relatively gentle warmups get my pulse really running high and my legs burning there's a good chance a hard workout isn't a good idea. I hate leaving the plan like this - the benefits are very apparent in my times and general fitness - but when it gives me three workouts per week and so many of them are so repetitive it really starts to feel like a chore that detracts from other workouts. I'm considering using workouts from the plan in something I'll put together for myself, so I can alternate speed repeats with goal repeats with hill repeats and do some more general runs mixed in. That will give me at least some of the benefits of the repeats and the structure of mixing anaerobic repeats in with regular work, but hopefully without taking up all the nicer days for endless repeats and not leaving me any time for background runs that are more about recreation than purely fitness training.
Ordered custom rear brake rotors to complete the set of 4. High performance brake pads also. Will also service the calipers, making for a custom, high end brake system.
We're hovering right around 0°F (-18°C) at midday. Next week is supposed to be cratering to about -30°C overnight. Fortunately we'll be down south for Christmas.
It was in the 30s here today. I put my sweatshirt on to go for my walk around town. When I got home I was sweaty.