Speed Work - 5 x 1000 m

Deja vu all over again? Yes I did five 1 kilometre repeats 2 weeks ago as our first speed work session. The original plan was to do six repeats, but the weather is really muggy today so Coach Brian emailed me to tell me to tone it down to just 5 repeats at 4:15-ish per k, with a 2 minute rest between laps.

After the first repeat, I thought 'Hey, this is going to be a breeze.' but by the time I was done the third repeat, I was starting to wish I was dead. The air was positively thick.

One thing I learned though is that if I concentrate on keeping head high to keep my airway as open as possible, I seemed to get a bit more oxygen into the system and I didn't seem to fatigue as quickly. Maybe its all in my head, but it seemed to make a difference.

Because I was only doing 5 repeats, I decided to step it up for the last one. Here were my times this morning:

Kilometre 1: 4:15
Kilometre 2: 4:15
Kilometre 3: 4:11
Kilometre 4: 4:12
Kilometre 5: 4:01

for an average of 4:11 per kilometre. And while I was definitely tired after each lap, I felt strong -- certainly much stronger than 2 weeks ago. And my average pace was 2 seconds faster than 2 weeks ago, so it is possible that I'm already gaining endurance and muscle.

My weight was right around 182 lbs after the run. Its been stable within a range of about 181 at the low end to 187 at the high end.