Last weekend I started getting a little excited to train. I haven’t really been that gung ho (anyone else remember that movie from the 1980s?) about this training cycle. I have just kind of been going through the motions. I’ve been getting all my long runs in and have been close to my weekly mileage targets, but haven’t been going the extra mile like I have in the past. The prime example being my speed workouts. I had planned to run nine mile repeat sessions over the 19 weeks, however kept blowing one run off after another. I would still get in 5 miles, however they were no where near the same level of effort.
That changed on Sunday when I decided I was heading back to the track on Tuesday for my second speed workout. I ran the same one this morning as I did almost 2 months ago: 2 mile warm-up, 3×1 mile at 5K pace, 200 meter recovery between mile repeats, and then 1 mile cool down. Here are the numbers:
| Mile 1 | Mile 2 | Mile 3 | Recovery | Mile 4 | Recovery | Mile 5 | Mile 6 | |
| Pace | 10:24 | 09:35 | 07:04 | 16:32 | 07:08 | 16:34 | 07:04 | 09:46 |
| Average HR | 134 | 144 | 173 | 145 | 172 | 152 | 172 |
Miles 3, 4, and 5 were all 6-18 seconds slower or 12 seconds on average per mile than the first time I did it. My heart rate was 5bpm lower for each of the miles so it looks like I just didn’t give the same level of effort. There was a decent headwind on the one straightaway, however I don’t think it had much of an impact on my times. I just didn’t push as hard. I really don’t enjoy going into the red zone so this type of workout definitely takes me outside my comfort zone. I was only checking my pace once or twice per mile. This wasn’t nearly often enough to know how I was tracking versus my targeted pace. I think I knew this subconsciously, but didn’t really take note until after I was done. Oh, well. Something to improve on next week.
Do you sabotage your workouts without realizing it?