Triathlon Training: Week 5 Lactic Acid Threshold Week - Tuesday Run

Today I was reminded about why I run at 5:00 in the morning. I hate running later in the day. I always feel like crap. The workout just sits on my mind until it is done. It almost stressed me out to not having it done right away.

I had plans of getting this done at 5 am, but a bad night of sleep with Ava and needing to be home at 4:30 this morning to help with Ava prevented me from getting the workout done when I wanted. Around 9:45 I started my workout.

This workout was probably the hardest workout I have done so far in the 5 weeks of training. My body felt good after the two workouts yesterday. I made sure to fuel my body after each workout(I read a great article about how to fuel that has helped) so I was not tired or sore.

This was a new workout for me. I took on a running workout from the highest level of training. My running is at a good place and I wanted to push the body to see what it was made of. This week is perfect because I can rest my body up since I don't have work.

Here is the workout

 

I decided to do the warm-up as I ran to the high school track. I sprinted on the track and then ran back. This was hard. Here is a breakdown of the workout.

Warm-Up - 1.3 mile warmup to the high school track. I ran on the track to get to an even time on my watch to allow easier monitoring of the intervals. My warmup was 10:30. I was feeling good, but not completely warmed up as the wind was strong. I ran a 8:06 pace for the warmup.

Intervals 1 - 6 - I felt great. I did not go all out as I was not completely warmed up and did not want to risk injury. I was running between 10 - 11 mph which is 5:23 - 5:55 mile pace during these intervals. I started to tire a little by number 6. I had to tell myself I was 1/3 of the way done. I found it hard running down on straightway of the track as the wind was blowing right at me. I had to really push.

Intervals 7 - 12 - I started a little slow on interval 7 going 6:05 pace, but the rest were much faster around 5:39 - 5:59 pace. There was really no rhyme or reason to the pacing times. One was fast and the next slow, next medium, next fast, etc. I stayed in a good zone. I was tired by 12 and remember talking to myself out loud about pushing.

Interval 13 - 14 - Still running good here around 5:38 pace, but it was at this point that I thought about puking. My stomach was on fire, I was winded, and had to mentally stay strong. I thought about stopping at number 14 thinking maybe I was overdoing it by going 18, but I stayed strong and kept going. This is that voice that I will battle time and time again. I have to find ways now to push that voice out of my head and do what I know I can do.

Intervals 15 - 18 - I was all over the place towards the end ranging from 5:45 to 6:18. My active recovery times were much slower over the 8 minute mile pace compared to the 7 minute ranger prior. Each one I had to talk to myself outloud to fight the urge to not push. I was breathing heavy and feeling a puke coming any second. 

I finished. It was a great feeling. My avg HR was 186. I know this would have been much higher if my cool down and warm-up were not included so this was a sign that I did what I needed.

I took a 45 second rest of walking off the track before starting my cool down. I needed to gather myself before heading home. I was tanked, but it felt great to complete this workout.

I then ran 1.2 miles at 8:18 pace completing 5.12 miles in the 38 minute workout time. My avg. mile pace was 7:25.

This was a great workout! I came home and fueled the body within 30 minutes and continued my day of cleaning the house and figuring out where to put all of these toys.