Wednesday, on yet another yucky weather day (humid and warm), we took a modestly numbered crew over to Austin High School for 1000m repeats on the track. Usually, we've done 1000's on our road course over at Zilker, but with the Trail of Lights, we are temporarily banished from the road course there. Warmups were fine and dandy, and I actually felt pretty peppy for an early morning run. Once we got to the track, there were lots of Rogues there, so we had to work on our respective track-sharing skillz, but it worked out just fine. We drilled, they ran, and despite the overcast darkness, we had no collisions.
Gilbert and Kenny got us together, and soon enough sent us out for our workout. Gilbert called for 5-8 repeats, at 800m pace. I couldn't remember what that was for me, off hand, so I decided to try for a pace similar to the last time I did 1000's on the track, around a 4:25 average pace. I got there last time by hitting a 4:09 on my last 1000 to drop my average from 4:29. I also hoped to do at least 6 repeats (one more than last time), and maybe up to 8.
It was quite confusing at the start, with a bunch of people taking off at the same time, weaving through and around the Rogues, trying to figure out what pace to run while also trying not to knock anyone over, including fellow Gazelles. At the first 400, Leslie called out 1:56, which was way slow for a projected 4:28 pace. So, I kicked up the pace for the last 600, trying to get us back on track. No one really wanted to go with me, but eventually, the groups split a bit, and I ended up with 6-7 people finishing the first lap with me. Once we gently jogged the 200m recovery, the group was pretty well established. We had some good volunteers to lead us around the repeats, which helped. After 5 repeats, everyone was done, but I hooked up with Frank for the 6th repeat. I got a few seconds head start on him, but once he caught me, he was nice enough to run at my slightly slower pace. I was all set to do a seventh and final repeat, but Gilbert told me that 6 was enough. My pace hadn't slacked off or anything, but since this was the first time, ever, that Gilbert told me I had done enough repeats when I asked, I decided to listen to my coach! :-)
Times: 4:26, 4:28, 4:28, 4:25, 4:20, 4:20. Average pace 4:25 (7:06/mile pace), which was about what I did last time with only 5 repeats, and I had plenty left today.
Frank and I did our 3 x 200 meter striders, and I felt like I had the smooth running stride thing happening pretty well for the most part. Done with that, we cruised back to RunTex, and called it a day. I stuck around for most of the full stretching with Lisa and Colleen, too. By the time I was leaving RunTex, a drizzle had started to fall, and the temperature had dropped 10 degrees, so maybe we're done with the ugly morning running weather?
For the day, about 8.5 miles.
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