Hardest Run....

This Saturday I had the pleasure of completing (successfully) the hardest run workout I've ever done (after a killer hill run on Thursday evening that also wasn't easy). Now, I'm sure there are plenty more difficult track/tempo/long fast finish runs etc. out there that people have done, but for me, this was hard, fast and long-ish and since I'm not IM training right now I guess that's what's important.

To start the morning off we had a nice little swim in Kailua Bay, it was a pretty choppy swim, but fun nonetheless. Filled with some fast swimming, beach running, mass start practice (even though we won't be needing that practice for Honu since the great race directors or whoever is in charge changed it to a wave start format!) core exercises and swim drills. It's always nice when you can get in a good ocean swim in a relatively safe location. Although, a few people got stung by some man-o-wars, which is never fun.

Afterwards, when the sun was high in the sky and beating down on us, with no breeze whatsoever (great Honu practice right?!) we started the run. There's this loop on Oahu on the Windward side....

and the plan was to run 4 loops, getting faster each time, with 2 minutes rest in between (each loop ended up right around 5k). So the total workout wound up being 13.1, perfect!

Anyways, the first loop was supposed to be warm up pace, get the body moving and ready for the last three, well maybe I was a little ambitious, or maybe I'm just getting better at running, but the first loop was by no means slow. I was able to get faster each time, but I'm not quite sure how I did it. The second loop was doable, I picked up the pace and knew I had at least one more gear before the last loop, but I couldn't think that far ahead. By loop three it was blazing hot and I was about done, somehow I mentally got through that loop (and still getting faster btw) and I think it was mostly due to the fact that I kept seeing smiling faces of other people suffering just as much if not more than I was the entire time around. Finally, the last loop came and it's only a 5k right, how hard could it be (ha!), and once I was done with that, I was done for the day and could just relax with Morgan on the beach! That was the longest 5k, I've ever done, but probably close to the fastest as well (I've never raced a 5k, they kind of scare me, but I'm a little curious how fast I could go, not curious enough to actually enter a 5k, we will just see what my 5ks look like at the end of a sprint tri and call it even). So happy I got through this workout and was able to share it with  the BOCA crew. It's not a workout I ever would have chosen to do by myself, but I'm so happy I was able to get it done and glad I got to do it with friends.

What a happy pup!

Tired but happy,
Lectie