9:00 Gazelles & Zilker 900m Repeats

Another nice day, sunny, breezy, about 63 degrees. It was a bigger group today, and we were off to Zilker for the moderately hilly 900m repeat course there. I ran over with Greta, who had done some of our long runs in the fall. Patrick was absent today. Anyway, the drills were different because in the bright light of mid-morning, Gilbert was able to take aside a few runners to correct their form on one drill or the other. I escaped censure, thankfully.

He gave us permission to run a little easier if we were still tired from the Cap 10k, but that usually goes out the window once we get started. He assigned me to do 5 repeats (90 seconds jog/walk rest between each repeat). I chased Maggie, Greta and Amy on the first repeat, and came in at 3:56 (7:02 mile pace), probably a little fast. The nature of the course is such that either direction, you have to finish on an uphill section. By the time we got to the last repeats, I was able to run by some of my pace group, especially late in the repeat, and I did a pretty good job of maintaining pace. My second repeat was weirdly off, at 4:07, but the last 3 were 4:02, 4:01, 3:58. Overall, I averaged 4:01 (7:11) pace on the repeats, faster than I've done them in the past, but still not all out. I was glad to be done, though.

I ran back with Maggie, a Galloway alumnus, and chatted about what's been going on with her. Once we got back to RunTex, it was time for a good stretching session as we enjoyed the great weather. I remembered to do my post-run exercises once I got home, 4x30 crunches/extensions, 2x25 back raises, and 2x15 pushups.

For the day, about 6.5 miles, average pace running was 8:40 or so. A good day at the running office.