Day 19: Cheaters never win

Today's task:  6 x 800m in 3:13 min (90 second rest intervals)

Today's weather:  68 degrees, windy as hell

Today's outcome:  straight up shit show

Coming off a great 14 mile run on Saturday and entering a "recovery" week, I thought I'd be kind to myself and complete today's intervals on the treadmill at the rec center.  800s are hard enough (and SIX of them???), I really didn't feel the need to contend with the wind as well.  I kinda feel like doing speed work on the treadmill is cheating a little bit, as you don't have the elements of nature to deal with, and you don't have to propel yourself forward...just set your speed and try to keep up!  But some days, I just don't feel like running outside, and today was one of them.  

I got a solid 90 minutes of yoga in before the girls woke up this morning, so I was feeling great.  I dropped Camryn off at school and ran to the rec center from there as my warm up.  I arrived at 9:15 and asked the guy at the desk if I could get on a treadmill at 9:30.  Thanks to it being January 6th, the treadmills were full of resolutioners walking at a snail's pace, and there were none open until 10.  NOOOOOO!!!  So back to my car I ran, annoyed with the amount of time wasted already.  I thought about driving home and running up and down Nimmo like I normally do for intervals, but I already had almost 2 miles under my belt just from going to the rec center and back to my car.  But with a quick text to my neighbor Michelle to see if I could use her treadmill, I was back on track.  

I often tell my kids that "cheaters never win and winners never cheat."  I am telling myself the same thing after that workout today!  That treadmill kicked my ass.  I was able to squeak out the first three intervals, but the last three were just plain ugly.  Even after slowing my pace from 9.3 mph to 9.1, I was taking all kinds of breaks.  My 800s were more like 2 x 400s.  It was when I found myself stretching my recovery intervals a little further that I realized why I could be struggling so much...all prior workouts had either 200m or 2 minute rest intervals, and today's was much shorter.  Brutal.  And I don't think the interval workouts from here on out get any easier...I think at some point I think I'll have to do 6 x 400s...TWICE in one workout!  Barf.  Time to move on with my day and not dwell on a crappy run.  Even the bad ones make you stronger!

Asshole.