 Ah yes. Write up about motivation on Monday ... you are certain to give yourself the whammy on Tuesday. It was one of those days where I felt a bit off from the bell. I woke up and this snot was coming out of my head. My stomach hurt a bit, and my head felt thick. In the old days, I'd call this a hangover. Unfortunately, I did not engage in any activity Monday night that would give me such an excuse.
I had hoped to engage in the 200-200-400 workout today to get good turnover. I wanted to get it done today, well, to get it done and because we are expecting snow tomorrow. As is often the case, however, before our Front Range snow storms we get a day of warmer temps (50s) and a stiff wind. From my desk, I could see trees bending in the wind. The wind gnawed at my motivation. The woozy feeling in my head gnawed at my motivation. This becomes a bit of a downward spiral typically. To not worry about my upcoming run, I try to focus on my work, but then I let my work become my event and suddenly I am too busy to run and then that further gnaws at my motivation. I don't feel good. It is really windy out. You have a lot of work to do.
After seeing big pieces of trash roll by in the lot across the street from the office, I decided that I would run on the treadmill. At least there I'd not have the wind for an excuse. But even after getting home it took me a bit to get to it ... check email, long time to lace up the shoes, check email again (I do have a lot of work to do you see), take a phone call, feed the dog ... all avoiding getting on the dang T5i.
I had a good chat with a co-worker (TWK), including some conversation about his running. I am really enjoying digging into what other folks are doing for running. I am trying to take special care in listening to what they are doing simply because a.) typically as a runner you are thinking a lot about what you are doing and b.) while I think a lot about what I am doing I really don't know what the hell I am doing and I probably can learn something from listening rather than telling folks what I am doing. It was this conversation and the entire thought that the three folks (well, okay 2) that read this blog would have some possible interest in how this workout went. And I did not want to write that I felt like and called it all off. So the blog, at least today, helped.
But even once on the mill, I delayed. I took a longer warm-up (3 miles, 21 minutes, first mile in 7:30, last mile with some striders to get HR up and used to the faster pace) - delaying the workout itself. I was not dreading working hard, as much as I was dreading results of working hard and not getting through it well. I decided to do half mile repeats. I can't really do 200s or 400s at the pace I want to on the mill, so I decided I do halves at 5 minutes per mile pace (2:30 for the half) and take a real easy quarter rest. In the spirit of focusing on the turnover, I decided to worry more about the repeat and not push the interval of rest (taking there whatever I needed).
I did 8 of the 800s - all at 5 minute pace (2:30) with the rest being anywhere from 2:00 minutes (8 m/mile) to 3 minutes (12 m/mile). HR for the latter repeats was near 175. None of these felt particularly hard or strained - I felt in control and on top of the workout the entire top - which suprised me considering how negative my attitude was coming in! I feel I could have rolled more with anyone interval or even done a couple more. The effort was solid. I know it is a treadmill and that is not the same thing as doing it on the track but it was good nonetheless. Things are coming through. I did some cadence counts during the repeats, and then later my daughter did some. They came in at 88-90. The higher cadence felt much more natural in the repeat on the treadmill than it did on the easy run yesterday. I finished out the run in 68 minutes and decided it was okay to reward myself with a glass of Merlot with dinner.
So, not the workout I wanted to do ... but a good effort in light of how I felt, and the weather.
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