Tuesday is speedwork
If you ask any competitive runner, you're likely to be told that Tuesday and Thursday nights are speedwork or tough sessions. Being coached by Pyllon Trax coach Rob Turner, is no different.
For the past few months, Tuesday and Thursday nights have been tempo sessions. Long efforts at target race pace for the 50k, but now the 50k is behind us, it's time to get moving faster again.
Tonight, I was asked to do 8x 800m with 2min walk / jog recovery at 10k pace. It's been a while since I've ran 10k pace so I was a bit unsure on what pace I was going to aim for.
Before I had even left the house though I was not in the right frame of mind. It was raining. It was windy. It was cold. I didn't want to go out the door.
The warm up
I left the house, put my music on and with 50m meters I was soaked to the skin, I was cold, my hands were sore with the cold and I was going to call it a night. I had a word with myself and after the first 1k the pace was actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The next kilometer is downhill to where I do my speed sessions so I just kept on moving.
After the 2k warm up, I did some strides, drills and tried to get my head in to the session but I was so cold and wet that I still just wanted to go back home. But going home isn't going to get me faster or race fit.
Just before I started the actual session, the rain stopped, the sun came out but the wind was still strong. I had to try and get my head in to this, just focus on each rep as it comes. Don't think about the next one or the one previous. Just the current rep.
Now it was time to get on with the show.
8x 800 reps
First rep started and nothing was feeling good. My breathing was heavy, my legs didn't feel like mine. I eased off the pace. In the past, I would stop my watch and regroup but tonight, I left it running and just accepted it.
Rep 1: 4:21 min/k
Regroup, refocus, get on with the next rep. I can't change the last one but I can change the next.
Rep 2: 3:47 min/k
Better. Now lets do this for all the rest of the reps. Just focus and give it my all.
Rep 3: 3:45 min/k
A bit faster and feeling more comfortable. Legs are starting to warm up, breathing is feeling better. I still felt it was slower than what I wanted so I had another word with myself.
Rep 4: 3:34 min/k
Now we are talking, things are feeling a bit better.
Rep 5: 3:36 min/k
A couple of seconds slower but that's ok. I'm happy with that considering how windy it was.
Rep 6: 3:36 min/k
Rep 7: 3:38 min/k
Legs feeling a bit heavy now but still sub 3:40 so I was happy with that. Now the last one. Just hold on, get it done.
Rep 8: 3:34 min/k
Done! A lot of hard work, a lot of digging deep and having a word with myself a lot but super pleased to get the session done.
Finished and jog home with a session under my belt. I dropped Rob a message saying this was a session of two halves, the first half was shit and the second half was less shit. 🙂
It's the first speed session in a while so it's good to get it done, even if it didn't tick all the boxes. On to the next one!