Training Log - Wednesday, July 14, 2010

One word: Speedwork. It was yet another humid morning. While the temps were reasonably low in the lower 70s, the humidity levels already hinted at the near 100 degree temps we would have later in the day. Again, Richard and I met at my house at 6AM for this morning's speedwork. The training schedule called for 6 1/4 mile all out sprints followed by 1/4 mile recovery walks and a 1 mile warmup and cooldown. It all started out well but 200m into the first sprint I actually hit a wall. My legs got real heavy and I felt like I almost couldn't catch my breath...almost. I did manage to somewhat push through it and finish every 400m sprint, even if the final 100m weren't pretty. Once I had a chance to look at the times online in my Garmin software, I realized that the pace wasn't too horrible. My fastest quarter mile was 73 seconds and my slowest was 82 seconds, which meant that I stayed within the target of not running any of the 1/4 mile sprints more than 10% slower than the fastest quarter mile. But I have to admit, I was truly spent after completing the last sprint. I needed every second and every yard of each and every recovery walk in between the sprints. It has got to be the heat and humidity that is making me feel like I am racing all the time. My legs are feeling fine, no more shin splints or other sore muscles. Tomorrow calls for another 7 mile tempo run.