This week's stats:
- 54 miles DOWN WEEK
- 5 x 2KM at 84-80 per lap with 400m jog
- 14M with 4M @ 604, 1M jog, 4.75M @ 545-540
- 0 doubles
- 1 lift day
- 1 day off
Without any answers about my seemingly precipitous decline of performance last week, I continued soldiering on this week with workouts, but all other runs only 6-7 miles. After communicating with Brad, we decided to keep this a down week, reduce the long run, and let myself recover. For the first workout of the week, I headed to the track again with my trusty partners of Jay, Yu and JOB to run 2KM repeats. After feeling like crap on the first interval, I decided to modify the splits a little bit and went out at 84 and gradually increased the pace on each one. I was grateful to have a full rest of 3 minutes because, if my suspicions about low ferritin were true, a longer rest would ensure I could complete the workout at least. The whole time, my breathing felt completely out of whack, so I told the guys that I would sit back and let them do all the work. While I completed the entire workout and felt happy about that, the execution of the workout wasn't necessarily what I wanted. I still was left scratching my head as to why the effort for a slower pace than what I've done in previous weeks suddenly felt soooo much harder. I just felt like I was not recovering and that I was weak.
For the second workout, it was a daunting 8M simulation tempo at goal half marathon pace. Brad called though and said to just get an effort in at a hard pace. The bad news is that the first 4 miles of our course are slightly uphill, so I felt like complete doo doo, with labored breathing on the first part. I slowed down and jogged for a mile until Leon, Yu and Jay turned around and then picked the pace back up with them on the downhill portion. The good news is that I felt like a million bucks on the downhill. After Yu dropped the pace, I continued pushing until Leon and Jay both dropped off. With Yu out of sight, I was left to my own devices as I pressed forward to get as close to 540 as possible.
At the time, I was a little upset about my performance for the simulation, but now looking back, I'm actually pretty damn happy about how this went. There's a very high chance that I'm low on iron, and, by giving myself a break, I was able to still complete practically a 2 x4M workout. I'm fit; my breathing just doesn't make me feel fit.
The good news is that I ordered a blood test for Monday and will hopefully have answers soon to explain my lethargy and overall doo-dooness.