A Tempo Tuesday

I'm still here icing my foot and craving sleep but I'm totally wired from 8 hours of work. I really enjoy my job, it really is a nice escape from the running world. I must admit, at the risk of sounding materialistic, I absolutely love surrounding myself with clothes but the excitement of all this product can't exactly fill the complete energetic void left from my workout. Today I did a modified circuit, due to my achey foot, after spending an hour battling the elliptical. I am proud of myself for developing the mental focus to be able to withstand cross training for a long periods of time but I really wish I didn't have to.

I fully expected to feel tired this morning because of the hard practice from the day before (it's totally ok to feel tired when you know why). Tuesday was a unique but much needed practice. 20 minute warm-up, followed by a 20 minute tempo. We finished the workout with 6x 300 with 2-2.5 mins recovery. I like the mental practice that it takes to run hard for 20 minutes. It was hard, I looked at my watch at 7 minutes and couldn't beee-lieve I wasn't in the double digits yet. You begin the tempo thinking wow I could run at this pace forever but as time drags fatigue slowly creeps in testing your mental will to persevere. It didn't help that my hips were a bit stiff starting off but still not as debilitating as they have been in the past. I focused my attention on contracting my core to disperse the fatigue, opening my hands instead of clasping my fists and trying to move my arms properly. I think this form practice helped. I felt like I was divvying the fatigue throughout my body instead of letting it concentrate solely in my hips. I'm happy with how I finished but let me tell you it was hard.  Despite my fatigue diversion methods my hips still bared the major brunt of the run.

I followed up the tempo with 6 x 300's: 48,48,47,47,47,47. I chose to wear flats and let me just say they are so much more enjoyable than rubber boots! They're not as good as spikes but so superior to runners.  Initially, I found it hard to pick up the speed after a tempo pace and this combine with thinking I have 6 repeats to finish made it mentally challenging but I felt strong.  I felt like I raced as the 300's progressed and I didn't give up, I stayed strong. I tried to move my arms and open my hands to disperse the fatigue while working correctly mechanically.  In my head I broke up the 300s. I told myself get though the first 100 metres and then pick it up with 200 to go. At 150 I told myself to push it and fight because there is only a stide distance left! The last interval was hard, I was screaming 201 in my head. I hope this will continue to help me focus and realize what I'm trying to accomplish. All and all Tuesday was a strong, positive day!