I read a lot of running books. More than would probably be considered healthy. The latest was the newest from Matt Fitzgerald, entitled Run: A Mind-Body Approach to Running by Feel. I won't get into a full review, but I wanted to touch on one of the topics discussed in the book, that of confidence-building workouts.
It's an idea similar to Hudson's race rehearsal workouts, which are the last race-specific workouts done before a race of any given distance, designed to provide the runner with the idea that they'll be able to successfully tackle the race. "If I can do this workout at this speed, then I can hit my numbers on the day." Fitzgerald uses these, but also expands on the concept by including other challenging workouts that "push the envelope", or provide a new window into the capabilities of a runner. And that's what I got last night.
For most, this might not look like much a session. There's only twelves minutes of work, with a fair bit of rest, but I've had an up-and-down summer training-wise. The heat has been killing me, I don't always feel well-rested, there have been some minor tweaks along the way. Two weeks ago, I attempted this session and blew up substantially in the last rep, then hobbled home. (Then spent 4 days overcoming a hip/ITB issue; related?) The heat wasn't as bad last night, but there were some serious winds, 35 km/h, gusting to 55. That might help the reps that were with the wind, but would do a lot more to make things difficult when I was head-on. I was anticipating/dreading this workout for a few days, but the time came to go out and hit it. This time, I was going to finish every rep.
After a twenty minute warm-up, it began. The structure is simple: twice up the ladder, 1-2-3 minutes @ 3k speed (3:36-3:42/km), with two minutes recovery jog between. The first minute was a breeze, stride was nice and open, breathing felt good. After the jog, two minutes wasn't horrible either. And the three minute took some digging, but I survived. Now it was time to gather my mental energies. Made it through 1 minute, which was nothing compared to the 3. Stride was shortening so turnover increased to get through two minutes. Then I just had that last 180 seconds. Last time I blew up at minute, so had to beat that. Thirty seconds in I turned right into the wind. I glanced at the Garmin every few strides, seeing 3:38, 3:42, and trying to kick that little bit more. My breathing was no longer laboured, it was an indentured servant. Another turn, and with a head-sidewind and up a 1% grade. Now I saw 3:50, which was unacceptable, so I poured on everything I had, and after rounding another corner saw 3:01, and for the last 30 seconds kept it pinned below 3:23. I don't remember the last time I sold out that hard during a training run.
My last few kilometres would be described as a "wog" (walk/jog), but I allowed it after that set. Now getting back to the original point: confidence. I finished a workout that destroyed me not too long ago. Not only was I on pace, but checking afterwards, most of the reps were in the 3:31-3:35 range, so I was even a little quick. I put myself in the hurt locker in a big way, so if I need to do that in a race, I know I can go there.
I'm still 5.5 weeks out from my 'A' race this year, so there's lots of work to do, but for the first time in a while, I feel like I'm getting where I need to be. And for the future, I think I'll be going back to this workout every so often (with recalibrated paces, of course). It's just hard enough. If it's going to be a regular, it need a name, so I'm christening this one Complete Double Rainbow.
w/u - 20 min @ 4:40-4:50/km
Work - 2x(1'-2'-3' (2' recovery) @ 3k pace (3:36-3:42/km))
c/d - 20 min @ 5:10-5:25/km
Total: ~13 km
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