Dancing In The Dark [2000m Repeats]

Today was the only speedwork for the week, 2000m repeats on the road course at Zilker Park. A pretty full crew showed up this morning in the chilly (35-38 degrees) air for the festivities. I was really sleepy this morning, but once I got moving, I shook off most of that torpor. Gilbert sent us over to the Park with the admonition that 5 x 2000m was the "minimum," which came as news to most of us. I warmed up over to Zilker with Shannon, Rich, Brian and Jennifer, and we ran easy indeed, arriving last. It was totally dark for all but the last repeat this morning, which made the last bit of the warmup a little dicey running along the little railroad tracks in Zilker. No ankles were turned, and so we joined the rest of the gang for drills. It was hard to get folks to do the full distance of each drill this morning, and we got a good laugh out of that.

Finally done, Gilbert grouped us up and gave us some target times for our 2000m laps. We had a new runner, Laura (?), along with Emily, Jennifer, Shannon, Rich, Brian and some other folks who didn't stick with us the whole time. Gilbert suggested to us that our group should shoot for a 2000m time of 8:20-8:30, which would be way faster than the last time I did this workout. My best performance on this workout was an average of 9:06/lap or 7:20/mile pace, way back in August, with a fast lap of 8:54. Okay. Off we went.

Focusing very carefully on the dark road, we took Gilbert's advice and did the first lap fairly easily, just to finish warming up if nothing else. Everyone stayed together for that one, and we were amused to actually catch up some of the distance between our group and Frank's group ahead of us. 2:00 rest, and it was time to go again. We dropped the pace quite a bit on the second lap, and came even closer to Frank's group. Rest again, and this time, we actually caught the tail end of Frank's group ahead of us, and dropped our pace again. We were taking turns leading the group around, and Rich in particular was showing us the way this morning. One last rest period, and we really knocked out a good lap on number four. I was walking around a bit, getting ready to do the fifth and final lap, when word reached us that Gilbert had decided that four repeats was enough and we were done. Although we had improved our pace on every lap, he still told us to stop. That was sort of disappointing, but further review told me that 4x2000m was plenty this soon after that 20 mile race. Better to stop a little early and stay healthy.

Splits: 9:34, 8:54, 8:40, 8:27. Last two splits were "PR" splits for this workout. Overall pace was a new best, too, 8:54 avg (7:09 mile pace). That 8:54 average was 12 seconds faster. Excellent. We even reached Gilbert's target time for that last lap, and although it was fairly hard work, I think I had another lap left in me at least at that pace.

Nice and easy return trip to RunTex with Jennifer, Rich and Frank, and the day was done. I'm glad that I had some snap in my legs following a race, and there appears to be very little stiffness or soreness lingering. This is all good stuff. I put on all sorts of warm clothes after we got back, and stuck around to stretch with Shannon and Aaron. It was cold once we stopped running! Shannon has been getting by on crazy small amounts of sleep lately, getting a big report done in her PhD research, and I think she's looking forward to some easier days the rest of the week. I hope so, for her sake. The conversation between the three of us was true geekspeak, with mentions of physics, math, and even bacteriology. Kinda fun, really.

For the day, 8.4 miles, with those 8000m of repeats in the middle. Good one. Tomorrow is super easy recovery running on my own here in the 'Hood, and a gym visit. Friday is a full day off, which will be wonderful. Saturday, I'll have to do my 14-15 miler on my own, but that could be fun. It'll be yet another Tour d'Lufkin, and with that kind of mileage, I think I'll go by the old high school, among other sights in town.