back in the saddle

Well, gluten exposure occurred and was mixed with hot temps and general cottage laziness (with a dash of fear of bears), and thus lying in the lake became the overwhelming activity, but I did do my two tougher workouts for the week, sort of.

The first was 20 min tempo, 10 min easy, 20 min tempo (with warm up and cool down)

T1= 2.62 miles, pace 7:38/mile. NICE!
T2 = 2.55 miles, pace 7:51/mile. what it's supposed to be.

The second wasn't entirely as successful. The temperature wasn't ideal, around 30C (humidex unknown), and the northern Ontario bush was no match for the brilliant sun. There was very little shade. Fortunately my husband biked along with me and brought a lot of water.

Still, there was only so much I could do!

T1(20 min) = 2.60 miles, pace 7:42/mile. NICE!
Easy (60 min) = 6.31 miles, pace 9:30/mile. Fine! (not fussy about easy pace)
But I had to stop several times to drink and get water poured over me. This wasn't enough to let my heart rate drop, though--it never settled into an easy run effort. It was hot and hard and stupid.

But I knew it was going to be like that. 5 minutes into the run, jogging easily to the trail where I started the tempo run, I was already covered in sweat and feeling somewhat off and upset. The thought of quitting was overwhelming. However, this was a turning point. I don't remember exactly what I told myself, but it was enough for the whiny acute part to surrender to the dull robotic senseless part. All I had to do was keep my right shoulder up, my glutes engaged, my cadence quick, etc, etc, all the little form tweaks that I've been trying to engage, until the next watering break. It was surprisingly manageable. The first tempo run felt gross but distant, and the easy run didn't feel like an easy run, more like propping myself up in a suitably efficient biomechanical method while ignoring the added effort required, but I was still distant. The heat and relentless sun and discomfort were very apparent, but there was so much else to focus on. Who left that scat? Why does my leg feel like that? Is that a distant cousin of labrador tea? Why do I feel like I'm veering off to the right? how long will it take me to get to that next part of shade? What is 7.5 minutes minus 4.5 minutes? (this level of math was surprisingly difficult at this point).

There remained the second tempo portion. This was not successful. I'd already decided that I could probably keep my heart rate up by doing intervals, 2 min tempo, 1 min easy, for the 20 minutes, but after the first 3 sets, I was done. Stuff was jacked up way too high and my breathing went hyper and I got upset. I walked and breathed into my water bottle to get back into a better rhythm, then I jogged back, ate, and jumped in the lake.

Mentally and aerobically, though, the workout was solid.