Mini-Test Gone Wrong?

Thursday: 0 miles. I consider this my "float" day. IF I am going to take a day off it is for days like this. I woke no problem but found myself mentally shot. No will to run. So I didn't force it. One good pot of coffee and taking in some morning news prior to work. I will feel better tomorrow.

Hadd Mini-Test:

This morning I really wanted to get this test out of the way. My legs felt fresh from yesterday's absence of activity and I was willing to give a good effort and head to the track. After warming up for fifteen minutes or so I got busy. The track was covered with small sections of portable bleachers from last nights UMD Bulldog football game but I didn't let that deter me in any way. I had my Garmin on which provided me proper distance and HR. The test is  as follows: all interval distances are 2400 meters. The first at 140HR, then 150, 160, 170, 180. I started out and had a difficult time keeping my HR under 140 and may have overshot a bit. This is what Hadd said not to do. Here was my layout of the test, my actual HR in parenthesis: 

HR 140 (143) 9:19 (6:13 pace)

HR 150 (153) 8:33 (5:43 pace)

HR 160 (162) 8:00 (5:20 pace)

HR 170 (159) 3:25 (5:14 pace)

* I couldn't run this last interval. I couldn't get the HR up and I was side-stitching like no other. My breaths were three to one step and I felt miserable. I'm a bit confused by this. Maybe an off day? I know I can get my HR over 170 as I have seen it in training before. I will be doing my Max HR test early next week and hopefully this will make sense. The most likely I can think of would be I am like Hadd mentioned. My LT and aerobic base is way low and that is what I will be working on over the next 15 weeks or so. 

I have to do a bit more reading yet and will be working more closely with HR training and hopefully seeing an improvement in efforts soon. I am looking forward to it.

Totals: 1:07:56  9.2 miles