Run Challenge Day 88

Damn it was hot today! And humid. Especially given today was hill sprint training day. As my training program called for recovery pace (7:00 – 8:00 pace) I held back. Glad I did or I wouldn’t have finished all the sprints. It was killer in the heat.

Ran 4.01 km in the 30 minutes at an average pace of 7:29 mins/km, average heart rate of 148 bpm.

Followed that up immediately with 6 x 30 second hill sprints with a 2 minute active recovery in between. That basically meant walk back down the hill and start again.

I was finished after the 3rd hill sprint, but told myself I wouldn’t quit until I’d gone back down the hill. By the time I got back down I’d found the mental strength to do it again. That repeated until half way through the 6th sprint, when I felt my brain say “enough” and turn off some of my muscles. It’s something I’ve felt before (like in the marathon) where no matter how much you try to will yourself to go faster, your legs won’t respond.

I gave myself an extra minute to recover before I did the 6th hill sprint, but otherwise, they were all 2 minute recoveries.

I let myself recover by walking (and gasping for air) for 1 minute then finished off with 2 km in 15:50 at an average pace of 7:55 mins/km.

In the first km after the sprint I had this weird pounding in my ears to the time of my footfalls. I also saw stars and had strange creatures lingering at the corner of my eyes. If I wasn’t expecting it, I’d have been freaked out, but when you push yourself to your limits in the heat, these things happen.

This was the 3rd toughest workout I’ve ever done. The two ahead of it are a 32km run in 30 C heat and a 30 km where I messed up my nutrition and was reduced to 10:00 min/km pace for the last 10 km.

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