.5

Yes, that's right.  .5   As in "point 5."  As in "one-half."

That's the rating I gave yesterday's workout on the "one-to-ten" scale.

I don't think I've ever had a "point five" before.

Yesterday, however, certainly deserved it. My workouts have been getting worse (i.e., slower and more sluggish) over the past week.  After last Friday's intervals and Sunday's trail skate with Energizer Bunny, I came home and took a nap. Without even changing and showering first. I was just too tired.

So I didn't have high expectations for Tuesday's endurance workout.  It was supposed to b 8x3k, with only 1.5 laps of rest between each 3k.  Last year Coach TieGuy reduced the workout to sets of 4-5 laps instead of the 3k's, so I figured I could do that if it didn't go well. I also figured I'd be taking longer rest breaks than the 1.5 laps, to take my skates off and give my numb feet a break.  So I was already planning to modify the workout slightly...I just wasn't planning to cut it by three-quarters.

My first 3k was horrible...slow, sluggish, my back got sore at 3 laps (when things are going well I can make it 8-10 laps before that happens).  My lap times were all over 50, and the last lap was 57...slower than my usual warmup pace.

Nice.

So I decided to reduce the workout to three sets of 4 laps/1.5 lap rest/4 laps, with a nice "take off the skates and rest" break in between.  This would only give me about half as many laps as the original workout called for, but I was OK with that.  So I did the first set, which, again, felt horrible, and which featured laps from 50-54 seconds.  Then I did the first four laps of the second set.  They sucked.

And then I quit.  And assigned the workout a .5 in my workout log.

I'm really hoping my thyroid levels are low again.  The way I feel when I'm skating is classic "low thyroid" for me, and some other symptoms have been creeping back (fat and cranky, if you must know).  So I'm anxiously awaiting the results of Thursday's blood test; if my thyroid levels are fine, then it's back to obsessive overanalysis of other possibilities (fat? overtrained? old?  all of the above?).  Hopefully the results will come in today's mail; we're supposed to have the Summer Inline Series oval races tonight (assuming the 100 degree heat index and air quality alert don't force a cancellation), and I'd like to know what I'm up against before I wedge myself into my skinsuit and drag myself through the races.

If they do have the races tonight, though, maybe I can shoot for a .75...