Notes
The Michigan: Slaying the Beast Edition. 2k-1600-1200-800-400 w/ Mile tempo and 100m jog between everything. The storms last night left Kendall-Whitter flooded, which was where I was planning on doing the tempo portions of the workout so I could bounce on and off the track between reps; I ended up sticking to the track for the whole workout. The weather was actually really nice this morning although not perfect, 62 degrees and humid, and the wind held off for most of the workout though picked up from 6 mph to around 9-10 by the end. Best of all, the storms that were forecast for this morning held off until the afternoon. I have a bitter relationship with this workout after many a blow up, and with the tight hamstring I wanted to call it off, however I knew I could handle it after a proper warm up, there was still an element of fear. I started off relatively conservatively, coming through the mile in 4:56 for a 6:09.7 2k. It didnt feel too bad and I wanted to remain conservative on the tempo to ensure I could roll the shorter stuff at the end. 5:19.5. Dropped it down a little bit more on the 1600 and neg split (2:25/2:22) for 4:48.4. The meat of the workout was coming up but I still felt relaxed for a 5:17.8 tempo. 1200 was where things started to get difficult, ran evenly (69/70/69) for 3:28.8. I jogged even slower for the following 100m to catch my breath and despite a slow start to the tempo I ran 5:18.0. The anaerobic monster was lurking close by and I figured the 800 was going to be the make or break. I had to be aggressive at the start otherwise risk not being able to reshift late in the rep. 66/68 for 2:14.5. The light was at the end of the tunnel as I dragged ass for the next 100m. I had one tempo mile then a maintenance 400 (at least that's how I thought of it). 5:17.7 for the last tempo piece and all that was left was a single lap. I burst through the first turn in 32 and kept accelerating from there. I hit 100m to go and my back was starting to rig up a tiny but but I focused on maintaining good mechanics and finished very strong for 61.4. I had no idea I would come that close to sub-60; after the 1200 my legs felt like they were beginning to be filled with concrete, and even more so on the last lap of the 800. It feels so good to finally conquer this workout after the nightmares it's given me in the past.