Notes
4 x 1200m from Armstrong to the old wooden bridge (part of the 5k course)
I took yesterday off to let the soleus recover and it seemed like it had. I had a different pain today on my warmup, it was much higher on my soleus or it was the posterior shin splints. It got better throughout the warmup so I decided to give it a shot, but it was likely a bad idea but I had a lot of fun.
Took rungum before the run... first time, and I liked it I think it helps!
The first rep I wanted to blaze to simulate the adrenaline and fast start of the 5k well it felt rather fast but it ended up my slowest rep of the day! I thought it might have been even a few seconds slower I was unable to tell, but mentally it got me down and started doubting myself that I could nail this workout or even run this 5k well. I started thinking about cutting it to 3 reps instead of 4.
The second rep I got into the open and must of caught a little wind at my back because I hammered hard. The first rep felt fast but the second one felt hard and I earned the faster time for sure. Especially with the hill that was about the last .25 of the rep! It was good to know that I had a shot of running times I thought were realistic and that I was able to compete instead of mail it in bc it was really hard.
The third rep I started downhill and it took awhile for me to really wake up bc it was so much easier starting that way. I felt the pain of the rep much later than the other two which I think led to not running as hard. And honestly at that point the workout became just about focus. If I was able to focus I knew I could maintain the hard effort. The caffeine of the rungum likely helped me do that here. Part 3 of the race is mentally engaging and I think that I did a pretty good job of it.
The last rep I was really excited for and for some reason I really felt like it wasn't going to be that bad.. I got the 90 seconds of rest and I felt pretty good. I started to feel really tired, not a running tired, just a kind of numbness of the body. Didn't really feel super HARD just hard to get the legs moving that much. I tried to hammer the last half mile, like I'm going to in the race. But I couldn't reach another gear for the most part (1:34 + 3:11). I think strides this next week will be important to getting a little snap back into my legs. The last 200m I seemed to find just a little bit more turnover, but I'm pretty happy about it overall. I gained a lot of confidence for the 5k knowing I just powered through a full through miles of work with just 4 and a half minutes of rest and hit a decent 5k pace (19:38 for the full 5k). Feeling more confident that I can hand the effortlevel that the race will present. I won't be outmatched and have the fitness to be in the realm of the 19's!!!