Saturday`s tempo run: 23:46@5k too hot and humid

I rested on Friday. As I have said, I am running 5 times per week these days, but still getting my hard workouts in, so I dont expect to lose much fitness. However, yesterday`s tempo run was the total opposite of last week`s tempo run.

Last week, I felt fresh and finished strong. Today I just could not maintain pace and finished very tired, wanting to quit after 3k. In the warm up I knew that it was not going to be a good day, I was sweating a lot in the warm up and my legs felt flat and tired. My brother wanted to run 22 mins in 5k, but I told him that today it probably was not going to be posible, the heat was very high and the humidity was crazy. On Friday the temps were in 41 Celsius, on Saturday it was 30s but it felt way hotter than that.

I wanted to go out at a good pace and see how my body felt, the answer is terrible. The first km was in 4:35, but right there I knew that I was not going to be able to maintain that pace until the end. I felt flat and was huffing and puffing already, so I eased back a Little bit to see if I could find another gear, second km came in 4:50 (9:25), right there I knew that I was dead and I would have to work hard to even run sub 24 mins in the 5k, my brother and I crossed the halfway head to head in 11:46 (2:21 for that 500m), then after the turn around I built a Little gap, but after the 3k that came in 14:08 (4:43), that gap became bigger and bigger, 4th came in 4:52 (19:00), I knew that I was running terrible and feeling even worse, at that point it was mental battle to remain strong and finish the thing despite the time would be slow ( that is the reason I dont wear a watch in races), tried to finish strong while keeping the effort steady, but trying to close hard in 4:30s the last km. but 4:46 was the fastest that I could muster given the conditions, finished the 5k in 23:46 feeling like crap. I was going to do 2-3 x 200s repeats, but I decided to not do them, and just do my cool down, I was feeling too unconfortable to stress my body even more. My brother did a disaster in the last 2k and finished in 24:58, but at least He finished. After the run, We both complained about the conditions, but also We were pleased with remaining tough and finishing the thing despite things not going our way. For cool down We did 12 mins at an easy pace, so around 1.8k. Total for the day was 9.1k or so.

This evening We are going to do our long run for the week, We Will see how the heat behaves and how We feel. Its amazing how from one week to the other doing the same workout can bring totally different outcomes given conditions and how your body feels. Effort is what matter though, and the effort was there.