Decided my run today would be out at Western Hills. Lots of small rolling hills and pretty scenery to distract me from being nervous about how hard I anticipated today's speed intervals were gonna be. I'd be running near 90 minutes before ever starting the speed work. I also knew my legs were already a little tired from a busier running week. What I do know about Western Hills is that there are plenty of bathrooms in case Avery's stomach bug decided to take hold of me. That was comforting. 20 min warm up-legs felt a little sluggish and slow which I anticipated. Next 20 min I was to go at a "moderate" pace, so picked it up and actually felt decent. Next up, 45 min "easy" pace. Soaked up the sun, trees, tons of deer, lake..then let the speed work begin. 7 minutes at a very fast pace...do it 6 times with 3 minutes rest in-between. Those 3 minutes go by really fast by the way. Managed to find a relatively flat, but seriously windy section to do these intervals. First two I maintained the pace. 3rd and 4th I continued to hang in there. 5th I struggled a bit, but maintained. 6th? Weird thing happened...about a minute in my watch started telling me I was going too slow. I told my legs to go faster. They did, slightly. Beep beep..your going too slow Lori. I told my legs again...go faster...they didn't listen. It was like they were completely disconnected from my brain. For just a flash I thought about trying to fight. Then I decided to go with it. To let my legs go as hard as they would and not get frustrated. I knew (thankfully) that if I let myself get frustrated, And tried to fight, i would break down, my pace would drop further and I would feel like I had failed. I know, I've done it before, many times. So I stayed right there, I held as hard, as fast a pace as my legs would carry me. Looong 7 minutes! And hands on knees gasping for air when done! But felt like I had accomplished a lot with that experience. I'm learning. The last 20 minutes of my 19 mi jaunt were laughable. A sort of mosey-jog at first, but..after about 5-10 minutes I started coming back to life. This is good, and important to remember...as i will come back from the dead many times at San Juan 50 miler and Leadville 100
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