Interval Struggles

This morning's plan was 6x800m at 3:00 each. I did this for the first time about two weeks ago. I came pretty close then with splits of 3:01, 3:01, 3:05, 3:04, 3:08, and 3:05. Again, I did not go to a track. I'm using my Garmin for distance measurement on a fairly flat greenway / recreation path.

I debated even getting out of bed to do these this morning. In fact, when my wife left at about 4am to take my 8-year-old son to the ER, I was pretty sure I would need to stay at home with my two daughters. My son has been fighting an ear infection and the first round of antibiotics had bad side effects. He started a different one last night and woke up at 3am with stomach cramps. We decided he should go in. They returned at about 6am and went back to bed. Some nausea medicine seemed to help. Having been up from about 3 to 4:30am myself, I was still pretty tired, but knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.

The rec path is about half a mile from home. I did a slow warm-up to get there and then started my first 800 meter run. Running a 6:00 pace for a half mile is tough for me. Even tougher when I'm not fully awake. By number three I was not feeling it and slowed down for a part of it. I debated giving up and jogging back home, but somehow convinced myself to at least finish them all, even if it is off target. I picked it back up to finish that one out. I walked a little between sets to help my recovery. Number four was better, but I had to slow it again on number five. Here are the final times, with the obvious slow downs on three and five: 3:03, 2:55, 3:23, 3:03, 3:32, 3:09. I don't know where that 2:55 came from. My Garmin was actually telling me to slow down.

I'm glad I got the workout in. I guess it didn't turn out as bad as I felt it was going to while I was doing it. Hopefully I can get better at doing the splits more consistently. And maybe I'll try a track one of these times to see if that helps.