Headline: Feeling good again (+Track workout 6)

Had to put this headline out there... mostly because in a few days when I'm inevitably feeling burnt out I can look back and remind myself of how training ebbs and flows.  Only have to look back at last Tuesday to see me complaining about being fatigued and delaying my track workout til Wednesday.  The catalyst for the fatigue was an extra hard 8 miler on the Saturday before which took several days to recover from.  I can see that looking back now, but in the moment of fatigue its pretty easy to start doubting your fitness and motivation.

This week I'm feeling good again though.  I followed up a pretty top quality weekend of work with a fairly solid track workout (on tired legs).

I either nailed the first set or went slightly too fast?  Does it matter that the second set got slower? .  I'm not going to harp on it and am happy with the workout overall.

The only rep I wasn't totally happy with was the first 400m of the second set at 86.2 which is still just about 18 minute 5K pace.  I wasn't too worried about the pace on that rep but I totally lost focus and zoned out... turning a negative into a positive, I guess I should be happy that I can "cruise" at this pace.  I followed up the 86.2 lap with a 2:51.5 which was 85.75 average for 2 laps (5:45 mile pace).

I definitely could  feel some residual tiredness in the legs from my 18 miler on Sunday.  Because of this I had trouble getting my HR up as high as I typically do during interval workouts.  Only getting into the 170s on the last 2 reps.

I've been alternating shorter faster speedwork sessions with longer more aerobic ones.  This was one of the shorter faster one (aka easy ones).  Next week will be my final "hard" track workout before my peak 5K.  

The thing I was most happy about was that after work yesterday I went with the kids to the park and played tag.  Last year it was a real struggle to be able to put forth that kind of effort on top of all the running.  I was always feeling too fatigued to handle the change of direction and sprint bursts required for that kind of play.  But last night I felt fine.

I was fatigued this morning, no doubt, but still got in 7 recovery miles at a 8:27 pace.  Plan to take it easy for the next day or two and then maybe hit a 4 mile tempo run on Saturday if I feel up to it.

Hope I feel this good in two weeks!