Meriden 1000's

This morning, we were treated to a noticeably cooler day. It was in the high 60's instead of in the 70's, and that was really nice. The scheduled Meriden 1000m hilly repeats caused a smaller turnout than usual, but that's the normal pattern it seems. Some people duck this workout and Wilke, just because running up hills isn't easy. For the most part, I go with the Nietzche thought: "That which does not kill you makes you stronger (might be paraphrased...)." Hills are a necessary part of training...they're just not much fun sometimes.

The warmup run is really short for this one, just .6 miles, and it's uphill, so I never feel very comfortable until after the first interval is underway. At any rate, drills were in full light on this longest day of the year, and Gilbert was able to see us clearly enough to do some correcting of various form issues. I had a good time chatting with Jan as we did the drills.

The assignment today was 2-5 x 1000m repeats, 2:00 rest between. The course is hilly, but it's maybe my favorite Gazelles workout. I just think it does a good job of building mental toughness and for teaching you how to recover after a steep hill in a race, due to the nature of the rolling course. Gilbert emphasized that this is about form more than time, but of course, we kept the times, so we were free to think whatever we wanted about that advice. Last time out, I did 5 repeats at an average of 5:00, on a much cooler day. I figured I'd shoot for 4 or 5 repeats today. My group was Jan, Richard, Kim, and David. There was some jockeying for position the first repeat, and I was pleased to note that I was catching people on the uphills. I ran with Kim on this one, and Richard finished right with us. By the second and third repeat, the group had splintered a bit, and Richard and Kim were my subgroup. We finished together on those two as well. The times were improving, too. Kim said that the fourth one was her last, so given the fast times we were running, I figured 4 would be enough for me, too. We cranked that one, and finished the four repeats in 4:59, 4:54, 4:51, and 4:45, each one faster than the one before. That last repeat was a new course PR for me, always exciting. Average on the slightly more than 1000m intervals was 4:52, or 7:37/mile pace. Kim is a faster runner than me, so keeping pace with her was a real test today.

After that, we did 5 uphill striders, about 100 yards each, I'd guess, for form. Those felt a lot easier than they did a year ago, that's for sure. To finish things off, we did 2 backwards running striders on that same hill. Surprisingly, I felt really good. I ran back afterwards with Kim and Jan, and that was the day.

I chatted some more with Jan and Patrick as I stretched, especially since I'll be out of town for a couple of workouts, and we were trying to figure out the rare times we'll be in the same place in July.

A good day at the running office, total mileage a measly but intense 4.8 miles. Tomorrow is a short and easy recovery run and hopefully a visit to the gym.