Key Workout

I had been dreading yesterday for over a week. No, it had nothing to do with the election. 😛 It was the final “key workout” of Katie’s 10K training program that I’ve been following. Here’s the breakdown:

10 minute warm-up
(2 miles at race pace [9:39], 2 min walk/jog) x 3
10 minute cool down

So, basically, you’re running your 10K in three parts, with a two-minute break in between. 😮 I knew it was going to require a tremendous amount of effort, and I wasn’t looking forward to it.

I was dreading it enough that, even though I had yesterday off work, I got out of bed at 4 AM so that I could get it over with. That’s just crazy, even for me! But I also had a lot that I wanted to get done on my day off, so it was in my best interest not to sleep in and procrastinate.

I headed out the door at 4:33am. I had debated on Monday night what to wear; I knew it would be chilly, in the low 40s, but I also knew I’d be working up a sweat. I decided on the pink Under Armor longsleeve top that Jason had bought me for Christmas last year. It has thumb holes and a zip-up neck, and it does a good job of insulating me without overheating me. Plus, it’s very soft.

I had a decent warm-up, coming in at an 11:19 pace. I was trying to conserve energy, because I knew I had my work cut out for me. When I hit the first lap, I was too fast to start, as usually happens. I really wanted to keep my splits even, so I made a great effort to slow down and get in the 9:34 to 9:39 range. I had the watch set to alert me if I went below 9:34 or above 9:44, but in retrospect, I should’ve set that upper limit at 9:39. I didn’t want to go above that, so it was silly for me to set the range higher. I spent a lot of my run looking at my watch, trying to make sure I wasn’t going over 9:39. Which of course totally defeats the purpose of setting the alerts!

The first mile actually seemed OK. I won’t say it was easy, but it wasn’t as hard as I expected. The second mile, especially the last half, was more difficult. I really had to work at the end, and when I got to the break, I walked. I was breathing pretty hard, and I went to automatically adjust my heart rate monitor to make sure it was centered before I took a look at my heart rate, only to realize–I had forgotten to put it on! Dammit!! That tells you how stressed I was about the run; I never forget my heart rate monitor. I really rely on my HRM, because I like to gauge my effort level with my heart rate, plus the calories I burn are much less than what the Garmin calculates without it. I was pissed at myself for forgetting it, but there was nothing I could do at that point.

Before I knew it, it was time to run again. That damn two minutes goes by so fast! I blew my nose and wiped the sweat off my forehead one last time, and then I got geared up to do it all again.

The second interval was about the same as the first: I felt pretty decent in the first mile, but I was getting winded by the second. Still, I didn’t let myself slack off. I had to turn around at the 1 mile point of that second interval. I have to admit, it was hard to convince myself to keep going after I turned around. I just wanted to stop! But I have these mental games that I play with myself when I do runs like this. I break it down into chunks, and then I convince myself that it’s not as far is I think. Getting to the one mile to go point helps, because then I can just keep telling myself, “It’s less than a mile, it’s less than three quarters of a mile, it’s less than half a mile…” Silly, but you do what you have to. 😉

I walked the second two minute break, and it was at that point that I realized that I had never turned my music on. Again, that shows you how stressed I was about the run. I never forget my music. At that point, I figured it was useless to turn it on, and I really should be focusing on the run anyway, so I left it off.

I wasn’t looking forward to starting up again, but I just kept telling myself I only had to do it one more time. When the third interval started, off I went, and it turns out I started out really fast. I slowed down, but then I was too slow! It’s really hard in that first tenth to 2/10 of a mile when you’re trying for a specific pace, because the GPS doesn’t register very well in that small of a distance. I knew that I wasn’t actually going as slow as the watch was telling me, so I just took it easy and kept at my pace, and before I knew it, I had 1 mile down and one final mile to go. I knew exactly where I would be stopping, based on the reading on my Garmin and my knowledge of the distance on my road, and the closer I got to my endpoint, the more I wanted to be done, so the faster I went. When I got to that final 10th of a mile, I really pushed it, and then, finally, I was done! I was so happy to walk! But this time, I only walked for about three quarters of the break, and then I started jogging, just because I was ready to be done and get home.
I continued to jog the 10 minute cool down, and then, when I got home, because I didn’t have anywhere to go, I actually sat down on a chair on the porch and just allowed myself to revel in my success:

Dude, not only did I nail every single interval, with almost perfectly even splits except for that last one, I managed to get in 8 miles before 6 AM! Holy shit!

After I was done, I was so proud of myself, I even posted the screenshot of my splits to Facebook and pretty much bragged to the world that I just had an awesome workout and put in 8 miles before 6 AM. I got a lot of comments, most of them revolving around my insanity. 😉 But many of my runner friends were very supportive, and both Katie and my friend Renee told me that I really nailed the work out and that my sub-60 goal was a sure thing! I’m not sure if I’d go that far, especially considering what happened yesterday in American politics, but I am hopeful that I can do it. I won’t lie, those 6 miles were tough, even with a couple of 2-minute breaks, but I’m hoping that the excitement of race day will propel me forward.

After I was done with my run, I shipped the kids off to school and then enjoyed a leisurely day laying around the house watching mindless television. Ha ha Ha, yeah right! What I actually did was clean my house from top to bottom, because I haven’t really cleaned it in a couple of months and it was filthy.

By the time I got done, I barely had time to enjoy coffee and an English muffin before I had to rush out for the biggest stress-inducing event of my year so far: I did the team photos for Jamie’s high school hockey team! 😮 It was a tremendous amount of stress, but I got it done, and I’m hopeful that the pictures will turn out well. I’m doing some pretty fancy stuff this year, including some special posters and even a banner for each kid to be hung at the rink. The kids are pretty excited. And actually, so am I. 🙂

Because I didn’t have my heart rate monitor on, my calorie burn according to my watch was high, but I calculated it, based on past race pace runs, to be about 720. Not bad for a Tuesday morning! However, because my day was so busy, I ended up eating a lot less than I could have:

It was almost painful to leave 600 cal on the table yesterday. 😛 On the bright side, I wore my “skinny” jeans again today, and I was still at the last notch for my belt, so there is that.

OK, I’ve got about 1000 pictures to process before the portraits are due to the printer for the program book on Friday. I may not post again until next week, so don’t be alarmed! Thanks so much for reading!