This morning, I did a workout that I thought would be the end of me: 6 x 1-mile with 800 m recovery jogs. The repeats were supposed to be at about 10k pace. That didn’t happen. It was unusually humid this morning (75%, according to weather.com). I realize that 70 degrees and humid is considerably more comfortable than the hot temps and 90+ percent humidity that many of you southern and eastern folks are dealing with. But Colorado is so rarely humid that when it is, it really kicks my tush.

  –> me.

I ran a little over a mile to warm up (in retrospect, I should have done a longer warm-up…my legs were not ready for speed), and then did the first repeat. I ran it 20 seconds slower than I “should” have and was already dripping sweat (thanks, humidity).

And then, I nearly gave up. I told myself to just do an easy run, to try the speedwork again tomorrow, when the humidity would likely be lower.

And then, I said, “Suck it up, Petunia. You might not run as fast as you think you should today, but if you don’t push through it, you’ll never get faster.” (Petunia is Porky Pig’s girlfriend. Just wanted to make sure you got the reference.)

 –> not me today!

(source)

So I pushed through all six repeats. They ended up being closer to half-marathon pace than 10k pace, but I’m okay with it. I’m not in peak shape yet. I don’t need to be until October, and by pushing myself through these unpleasant workouts (unpleasant = near-death), I’ll get there.

Also, humidity and I are not friends. Not only did it reduce my pace, but it made me sweat even more than usual. By the time I started my cool-down, I was regularly pulling up my shorts because they were so sweat-logged that they were falling down. Gross. I thought about taking a picture of my sweaty self when I got home but decided to spare you. You’re welcome.

I came home, chugged a glass of chocolate milk (sticking to my goal of proper recovery nutrition), peeled off my nasty, sweaty clothes and took a looong shower. The shower was the best part of the workout, no joke.

And now, I’m off to read some of your blogs and eventually go get my driver’s license renewed. I’m not going in to school today because I’m guessing the DMV will take up a pretty solid chunk of the day.

Do you do speedwork on a track? I didn’t this morning, because: A. The track near where I live is locked up like Alcatraz and I’m too lazy to drive out to use the one at work, and B. This workout was nine miles without the warm-up and cool-down. Nine miles = 36 laps. Too many circles.

How do you pep-talk yourself into completing a workout that you just want to quit?

What’s the longest wait you’ve ever had at the DMV?

P.S. I know I said I’d post a review of Matt Fitzgerald’s new book today, but I’m a narcissist and wanted to talk about my workout instead. Plus the review I’ve written is much too long right now. I’ll edit it down and post it tomorrow. I promise.