Tuesday Tough Grrrrllll!

It's still humid but I got out to the track at 6AM today so the heat was manageable. (Scott had yesterday off and spent the night at home so, no, I did not leave my children unattended at home!) Despite the better weather, I started out feeling pretty rough. I never got my "easy 30 minutes" in on Sunday so I did it yesterday.... and though I took it easy it was all hills. My legs were not as fresh as they might have been. In addition, some funk has parked itself in my throat and nose so I'm not loving my respiratory system just now.

On my 20 minute warm up I kept going through patches of air that were SO thick. It was very much like going through suspicious warm spots in the a lake... but I'm pretty sure the especially humid spots I hit this morning were not the result of lazy urinaters. Jeeze, I hope so anyway!

Back at the track I had the same workout as last week on the docket: 6 x 800. Because the heat was less intense, I decided to try to go with the 1:30 recovery period between sets. This is MUCH less than I normally do (since I usually do a slow trot around the track once between sets). After the 3rd 800 I had to cheat a little and give myself 2:00 instead of just 1:30, but I was pretty happy with the new challenge. I good way to crank up the workout intensity without having to add any sets of 800.... which would have made me want to weep!

I was all about 3s today. Except for my first set (where upon I dropped my Garmin - blasted broken wrist band! - and suffered iPod failure) the 800s were eerily synchronized.

#1 - 3:46
#2 - 3:33
#3 - 3:34
#4 - 3:33
#5 - 3:33
#6 - 3:30

Given that my training plan calls for speed workouts of 800s to be done at 3:30 pace, I am fairly happy with this. As I used to the shorter recovery periods I think I'll be able to get these down to 3:20s... but I'm certainly not freaking out about being a couple of seconds slow. Too bad there's no Olympics for people who are freakishly consistent.

In order to survive these - especially when my iPod fails as it did today, I count down from 8 as I run. With each passing 100M, I mentally repeat the distance I have yet to go (without the "hundred"). Some how counting down from 8 seems so reasonable and makes the whole thing seem not-so-torturous. If you are doing track workouts I highly recommend it!

Hope you are a Tough Grrrlll today, too.