Most intense running week so far

This week was definitely the most intense week I’ve had running so far. It started out Monday with a threshold workout. It was basically 15 minutes at the race pace, which the Garmin figured was right at my lactate threshold.

I was very nervous about this workout all weekend. I really wasn’t sure if I could do it or not, but I knew I was going to get out there and give it a shot. I found a route that was mainly flat if even slightly net downhill, just because since it was pace based and not heart rate based, going uphill did me no favors.

It was 10 minutes normal pace, 15 mins at race pace, 10 mins at normal to finish. When I started the interval section, it felt fast (well, for me) and I could tell my HR got up pretty quickly. But I settled into a groove. I saw the timer get to 10 mins left and it was feeling hard, but I felt like I had plenty left. When I had 5 minutes left I was hurting. But I just told myself to hold on for 5 more minutes. 4… 3… 2… 1

And then I made it. It felt really good to get through that. That’s probably one of the most consistent hard efforts I’ve done in years. I mean, in CrossFit, we do lots of hard stuff. But I’ve had a hard time convincing my brain that I can stat at that HR for that long. Doing it on Monday was a good reminder just how much of all this is mental.

I had several more runs that I did during the week, and I felt good in all of them. I felt really strong yesterday in my “long” run for the week. It’s amusing, this week the Garmin has definitely turned up the knob. My Wednesday run this week was last weeks long run. But I’m excited to get them done.

The fact that I’m actually running straight for an hour at a time is just a great feeling. It will be interesting when I get back to Austin and some real ups and downs, but I’m excited to keep working towards the sub 30 goal!