KONA-BOUND

Yesterday I decided to extend my streak off taking Wednesdays off to 3 weeks in a row. This morning I decided to do a workout similar to last Friday’s 1:30 on/:45 off workout. The “on” portion is at 10k pace. Last week I shut things down after 9 reps. Daws recommends this workout with 20 reps. I figured that’d be too large of a jump in one week and I decided to do 2 sets of 8 reps with a 5 minute jog between the sets.

The first set was difficult logistically, not physically. That’s because it was pitch-black and I couldn’t see my watch. I had to keep using the light on my watch in order to know when to start and stop each rep. Also, since this workout is on the bike path, rather than the track, it’s a little difficult to know what 10k pace is. I figure if I go “too fast” then 45 seconds isn’t enough recovery and I need to slow down a little.

Doing speed workouts in the dark is new to me this year, so I’ll have to get used to them if I plan on racing through October. It was a year ago that I started my current job. However, I was done racing for the year, so I never had to do hard workout in the dark.

The other day I mentioned the brutal Ironman Wisconsin results for some of my teammates. Today I’d like to congratulate a gal I trained with in 2003, Julie Hull. Julie was 2nd in her age group and qualified for the 2006 World Championship race at Kona, Hawaii. Now I don’t feel so bad about getting biked into the ground by Julie.