Since I had access to a track this week, I decided to do another time trial. Besides, last weeks "trial" was only at 80% effort, at best. I was feeling good and planning to run a 1 mile warm up and a 2 mile cool down for a total of 4 miles with the time trial. Sounds easy enough, right? Yes, it's true that I have been complaining an awful lot about this heat and humidity in the South, but today if ever it is warranted! I wasn't able to go out until around noon (I know, not optimum timing, but I had to wait until my son went down for a nap). I can sum up the entire work out in one word: BRUTAL.
Of course the track was in full sun; what track have you even run on that is in the shade? And the track was being prepped for a new surface, so it was straight up black asphalt. The combination of the heat beating down from the midday sun and the reflected heat emanating of the hot surface was quite an unbearable environment. I was thinking, ok it's hot but it's just 4 miles with a mile time trial wedged in between, I can do it.
I ran the warm up slow, took a few swigs of water, stretched a bit and lined up for my four laps. I was feeling optimistic. My first time trial 4 weeks ago was a 7:22 pace, so all I wanted to do was beat that by any amount. Really, I would be happy with a 7:21, particularly in light of these conditions. No such luck. My legs felt great, but my lungs would not respond. I came through in 7:27. I was bummed that I did not see an improvement after 4 weeks of training.
My husband made a good point, though. My training program is geared to focus on my leg strength and fitness by incorporating early hill workouts. The tempo runs and intervals won't be added in until week 8, so I have performed essentially zero speed work. I was encouraged to view my disappointing performance this way since my legs did feel great, I just couldn't breath.
After the 1 mile trial, it was so hot and I was so exhausted I was only able to eek out another mile for a total of 3 for the day.
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