Struggle through first 10k reps session in 4 months

Sunday 3rd February
AM; Ran a total of 10km using my secret "10k reps session" format in 46minutes 41.88 seconds. Average speed 4.40.19 per km. Heart rates ranged from 162 to 192 but mostly around the low 180s.

Got there around 8am and finished about 10am so avoiding the heatwave time of the day for the first half of the session again just like yesterdays run. See
here, which shows it sat around 24-27 degrees for the first hour or so, but from 0930 to 1000 the temperature climbed to 28-30 degrees as I finished just before 10am.

First half of the session was excellent, considering where I am at now. Was consistently hitting around 4.25 per km on the reps for the first 5-6km which meant I was on track for a sub 45min effort which would have beaten the 45.17 I did on October 1st last year a few days before the Melbourne Marathon...
See here...


Given my lack of good speedwork in recent months I knew it was rather ambitious attempting to complete this session now, but wanted to establish a baseline of short distance (5k,10k etc) fitness to work from in future weeks, as well as kickstart some more intense reps type training, and this was the best way I could think of with the Matilda Bay 10k in 2 weeks, and the Bridges 10k 6th April the main current ***short*** races in mind. (other races include th Freeway bikehike 16th March, maybe some short triathlons and the 40 miler on 24th March to name some of them) I am hoping to nail a sub 48 at Matilda Bay, and hopefully work towards some sub 45 (or better) stuff by the time Bridges comes around. Would be nice as I havent run sub 45 for a few years now so have almost forgotten what it feels like to run sub 4.30's for an entire 10k...

Ended up increasing my rest times a lot in the second half of the session, partly because I was telling a lady who was taking her little aths kids for some "training" about the marathon club runs, and had to get a bandaid out of my car for one of my nipples... So not sure if my rests were too long, I didn't do my active recovery well enough, my 33km yesterday was affecting me, my lack of fast sessions over 5km in recent months, the sharp increase in temperature (it hit 29-30 degrees celsius after sitting around 24-27 degrees for the first half of my session), or just generally poor fitness...but my last 4k of reps was very slow sliding out to about 5minutes per km, and thats when I got my lowest Heart rates of 162 and 177....
So I wasn't that stressed cardio-respiratory wise (breathing), it was just really heavy legs that wouldn't go anymore. Methinks that has to be lactic acid accumulation or general fatigue, but hopefully I will be better for having done this session, and can improve significantly next week.

Anyhow that meant my time blew out to just under 47minutes, which going on past experience predicts a sub 48 10k race time for me maybe as a starting point for 2008. Apart from very tired legs, I actually felt a bit too good at the end of this session, and that combined with the very low heart rates near the end of the session suggests to me that if I avoid doing a long run close to my next attempt at this session and get out there before 7am, I might nail a sub 45minute effort next weekend, if I can get through the usual weekly logistical obstacles. Hope to skip saturday morning group next weekend, in favour of another 10k reps session, and do part of Nathan and Daves Beach to Bluff epic 86km run (which finishes on the summit of Bluff Knoll the second highest mountain in WA at over 1000m) as my long run on the Sunday instead....
***update; too hard logistically this week so perhaps a Mt Cooke run or the Hills group again instead***

Guess we shall see on February 17th whether we can deliver the goods in the Matilda Bay 10k.

So extremely happy to nail this session, which brings my running km for the week to 48km, plus cycling, walk with my wife, and the usual meter reading exploits for many hours all week. At 440minutes for the week, and having ticked four of the boxes of my 5point training strategy (long run,ride, 2x race/timetrial/reps,abs and swim) this has already been a successful week. If I can just jam in a swim tonight somehow (would help if I could find my goggles...might have made splash n dash on Friday if I had), I would have nailed all 5 sessions I want to try and get done on a weekly basis this year...
***update*; failed to get a swim done...but hey "Rome wasn't built in a day" "God is still working on me" of course...