I had 8 x 400's on the plan today....the day after a really difficult bike, plyometrics and an easier run. (If you can call it an easy run after the bike and plyo's. It was more or less a trudge.)
My legs felt it right at the start. I started trying to convince myself that the physical pain was ok. It would be bearable when I got the to 400's.
Really. Trust me. You can do this.
I did the first 4 intervals. I was mentally losing it. I was thinking, "I can't do this today. I just can't."
It was frustrating. I was getting so mad at myself. I was having a hard time.
For the recovery after the 4th interval, I stood on the sides of the treadmill.
I was all like "What is WRONG with you today? You're not even at threshold"
Then, it become a barter session. "Let's do this. You can do a slower build for the first 200. BUT, if you do that, you really have to run that last 200. This is NOT about how fast you go. This is about NOT GIVING UP."
And, I passed 3 miles in what was my 5k PR. 3 miles in a 5k time that I haven't hit in 3.5 years. A time....that includes really slow 200m recoveries.
All of sudden, the workout that I thought sucked so much at the beginning became a breakthrough day.
Reality Check:
I realized that these sessions don't have to perfect. They are going to be ugly, really really ugly. But it's just me and the treadmill. No one will ever see me give up, but it matters to me. I don't want to be THAT person. Two weeks ago, I did this workout with 6 reps, and I had to walk the last recovery and most of the cooldown. Today, I ran 8, and I ran the cooldown and the last recovery. The last two intervals were faster than I ever thought I could run. A year ago, I wasn't even running 400's at a 9:15 pace.
Today's paces:
2 @ 7:53
2 @ 7:47
2 @ 7:41
1 @ 7:35
1 @ 7:30
BOOM.