Speed Work and the Heat

Monday was the first official day of Summer but Summer arrived in Northwest Arkansas a few weeks ago.  Our weekly speedwork night is not to be skipped even in the heat! We had about 30 brave souls come out for the workout with temps around 95 and a heat index around 100.  One pleasant change that we make when the temp is this hot is to move the starting line for our workouts so that people get to take their rest in the shade.  It is amazing how much of a difference the shade can make! It is a little confusing to start the repeats from the sprint starting line versus the regular start line though (we finish on the curve instead of on the straight away.) 

The workout was a distance medley relay which didn't appeal to me and my running partner.  We decided to do our own workout and decided on an interval of 400m at 5K, 200m shuffle jog, 400m at 5K, 200m shuffle jog.  We did two sets of this and had 400 times from right at 2 min to 2:11.  We were aiming for 2:15 on the 400's which would put us at a 9 min 5K pace so it was kind of fun to beat that time even in the heat.  We take turns setting the pace during the workout and sometimes get pulled up when faster people pass us. 

As we finished our second set, the rest of the group was starting some 200m repeats.  We gave it a go but after the first one I told my running partner I was switching back to the 400m distance.  We ended up compromising and did a 400m, 300m, and then 200m.  I guess I needed to work my way down into the speed.  Our last 200m felt really rough...my form was all over the place and extremely sloppy. 

We walked a little to get cooled down and then started our cooldown jog.  Both of us skipped the plyometric drills.  I am feeling a lot of soreness in my legs from volunteering on Sunday at the Ozark Valley Triathlon.  Body marking 100 triathletes turns into a lot of squats!

I'm looking forward to Thursday when we are forecast to have a slight cooldown with a high temp of 89 instead of mid-90's! It is definitely going to be a hot summer!