Gazelles Circuit Workout

This morning, it was warm and humid, which will be the weather for all subsequent posts from Austin runs. A fairly small group left from RunTex, and we actually ran pretty relaxed for a change. I talked with Jan, Chelsea, Amy and Frank on the way over - an enjoyable start to the day. A good number of folks were waiting at the track for us, so the eventual group was around 30 people. After drills, we were already soaked, but we were ready for circuit. Henry was there to help administer the circuit part of the workout, and to lend support. It was good to see him again, even though he's hurt and out of action on the running side of things for a while.

This workout usually ends up with people just running their 800's more or less on their own, with the occasional lap done with a running buddy. It is rare to stay right with someone the whole circuit workout. I did the first 800 with Richard, the second with Chelsea, and the last 800 with Jan. I kept up a consistent, but relaxed, pace on the 800's, all of them around 8:00/mile pace, and for a change I didn't slow down on them as the workout progressed. A good job of pacing, I guess. The actual circuit exercises aren't that tough anymore, but the combination of lunges followed immediately by the next 800 is not easy. Once again, my HR actually recovered a bit on the running.

We finished off the festivities with a couple of rounds of Gilbert's "Fast Feet," which were made a bit more fun today when I realized that Ramone's songs are perfect for that exercise. Sue and I were singing "I Wanna Be Sedated" as we did the second minute of FF, and we got a kick out of that.

The cooldown run today was actually just that, which was a welcome change. We had Richard, Shannon, Chelsea and Jan running back, and we eventually caught Joseph. I did some good stretching and talked with Frank, Patrick, Jan, Alex and Gilbert afterwards as well.

As always, it was a lot of fun to hang out with my running friends this morning, despite the heat and humidity. That common suffering is a strong bonding experience, I guess.