Circular Thought

Last night's track workout consisted of 4 x 200m (200m recovery), 2 x 4oom (400m recovery), 4 x 200m (2oom recovery). We were a large group, all varying abilities. The first set of 200m intervals went smoothly, but as we moved on to the 400m intervals, the slower runners (me) got lost in the recovery jogs. As a result, the remainder of the intervals began to occur in waves - ultimately I was timing myself on my watch, running my own workout. Not an ideal situation, but I wasn't going to push the recovery jogs in order to fit someone else's timetable.

I ran the intervals at a comfortably difficult (moderately uncomfortable pace). Last night was the first night we really felt any heat, and the humidity made it difficult to breathe during the recovery jogs (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was unable to warm up, having arrived moments before the workout began). But I ran, and the intervals were moderately challenging.

As the very last 200m interval approached, I figured I'd give it all I had left in the tank. And I did. :44 a good 5 - 10 seconds faster than any of the previous attempts. It hurt. I could probably have gone faster if I were giving myself adequate recovery between intervals.

So, I either pushed entirely too hard or I am habitually not pushing hard enough.

Probably not much of a stretch to say that the latter explanation is most likely accurate.

I hate feeling icky. Now I have to weigh the icky of hard work against the icky of knowing I could be working harder.

Poopy.