Fast Stuff, 3 Laps at a Time

Finally, Wednesday I headed down to rejoin my Gazelles friends for a track workout. It's been a while, so I was looking forward to seeing everyone. My leg felt pretty good this morning, and it was even somewhat cooler out there. Can't complain about that!

Gentle warmup running led us to the track at AHS, and we split up into two bunches to do the drills. Gilbert set up the groups, and off we went. He told my group to aim for 400m splits in the 1:45-1:50 range. That's 5:15-5:30 per 1200m. Okey dokey.

I led the first couple of repeats, and we gently picked it up each repeat, right in range. The 1200's didn't seem any harder than 800's or 1000's, even though our pacing was the same. Go figure. The group had thinned down by the third repeat, which we clicked off even quicker. For the fourth and last repeat, we let the hammer down a bit, and kicked the pace faster still. I'm very happy with our times, especially considering how I felt just Monday! The 1200 splits were 5:27, 5:24, 5:23, and 5:15, so that's exactly as ordered. The 1200's were in a modest 7:13/mile average pace, but I'm pleased all the same.

Dennis and I did our 3 x 200m striders, and it was only on the third strider that the left calf barked at me a bit. Nothing big, but I could tell that was quite enough for my legs today. I ran back to RunTex with Colleen, and got caught up on her travels as we ran.

For a change, I stayed and did the full stretching, and that felt pretty good. Rachel hung out with us, along with Lisa, so it was like old home week. Gilbert told me that I had looked "tired" during the track work, which I can only attribute to my somewhat dodgy musculoskeletal condition. I felt pretty good today, but I suppose I appeared to be off form.

For the day, 7.22 miles. I'll aim to do a super easy HR run tomorrow, in the 45-50 minute range, and get in a gym visit. Friday, I have to do the scheduled Grove run (about 13.5 miles) on my own because of my high school reunion this weekend. But, I'll be back for Gazelles on Monday, whatever the workout may be. Busy, busy.