My 1-mile repeats workout

On Tuesday, the day before I headed out to Tempe to ride on the IMAZ bike course with The Captain and Old Wise One, I did a fun and exciting run workout.  This run also happened earlier in my training plan, and I was absolutely not able to complete it.  I knew it was going to be a tough one, even though it was really short.  So I got my battle garb on and prepared myself to run.

Like a lot of my runs, unfortunately, I would be completing this run on the dreadmill.  I secretly have grown to like the treadmill, and actually prefer to use it for my speedwork days.  Once I was all set up, I pushed that start button and got to work.

I did the same thing I do for every run, unless I'm trying to simulate hills, which is set the incline on the treadmill at 1.0.  I followed my typical warm up, but extended it slightly, since I knew that I was going to be asking a lot of my legs...I wanted to make sure they were nice and warm!  My warm up is this:

1:00 at 6.0 mph

1:00 at 6.5 mph

:30 at 3.0 mph

1:00 at 7.0 mph

1:00 at 7.5 mph

:30 at 3.0 mph

1:00 at 8.0 mph

1:00 at 8.5 mph

:30 at 3.0 mph

1:00 at 9.0 mph

1:00 at 9.5 mph

:30 at 3.0 mph

:30 at 10.0 mph

:30 at 3.0 mph

:30 at 10.5 mph

:30 at 3.0 mph

:30 at 11.0 mph

and lastly about 2:00 of walking at 3.0 mph before I begin the fun stuff.

The main set for the day was pretty simple: 1-mile in 5:41, followed by 400m of walking.  And this was to be repeated three times.  Basically it was three 1-mile sprints.  A 5:41 mile is roughly 10.6  mph on the treadmill I use, so that was my goal speed.  For the 400m of walking, I would be setting the speed to 3.0 mph, which comes out to 5:00 of walking for recovery.

The first 1-mile sprint wasn't too horrible, but I knew it was going to be pretty rough trying to get through the other two.  I had eaten a decent sized lunch about 3 hours before this, but I guess my stomach was digesting the food a little slower than normal.  I had some pretty severe cramps!  Mile 2 was even tougher, and I just wanted to lay down on the ground and rest for the 5:00 walk, but that was not what the workout called for.  When I started mile 3, I wanted to cry.  I did everything I could to avoid just staring at the display screen because that seriously makes time go by slower, it's a scientifically proven fact.  After having an out of body experience, I made it through all three sprints!  It was quite possible one of the hardest workouts I have done in a while.

Normally, when I'm doing a run workout, even sprints, my heart rate will peak somewhere around 170-172 bpm.  It's not very often that it drifts about that level.  Well, here's the graph of this particular workout:

Click on image to zoom

What you will notice is that there are four distinct bumps.  The first is the warmup, and the next three are the sprints (with the last one having a short little dropout of the HR, probably because my shirt was completely soaked!).  During the first sprint, my HR peaked at about 172.  During the next two sprints, my HR got as high as 178 bpm.  Crazy!  I'm not sure that I've ever gotten my HR that high and been able to sustain it to finish the workout.  But I'm glad I did, and I'm glad I actually finished this one!

Thanks for reading!