Fartleks With A Big Crowd

This morning, we met early for the usual fartlek tuneup workout before a weekend race. Slowly, everyone is starting to get back after the holidays, and familiar faces are showing up now. 5:45 was early since I'm finding my way back into the time routine still after the holidays, but it was fun to see the gang anyway. We seemed to have some new faces in the crew, too.

Gilbert gave us the drill, which was to do the 7 mile loop with 2 miles easy running and then 15 x 1:00 fast fartlek pickups alternating with 1:00 rest jogging. After that, we'd finish off the loop with easy cooldown running. Weather was nice, mid 50's and clear.

Off we went, in the darkness. The groups sort of form up as we go, and after a mile, we had a group of about 11 people, much more than normal. By the end of the run, I had learned the new names, and I can only hope I remember them the next time I see them. Frank is still getting over some ailments suffered over the holidays, so he ran with our group instead of his usual group ahead of us. Amy wasn't there today, but she might be doing the Tuesday/Thursday routine this week with Shannon. We had Frank (guest runner), Rich, Richard S., Brian, Jennifer, Charlene, new Amy, Carrie, Kristin, and Emily as we crossed over the I-35 bridge and got ready to run fast.

We took turns leading the 1 minute pickups, which made for a much more fun workout. There's both extra energy and some mental pressure when you are out front setting the pace, especially with a group that big. But, we had enough people that we didn't have to lead more than 2 at most. For a change, we did a good job of backing off on the recovery jogging, probably to something like 9:15-9:30 pace, and the fast bits were pretty fast altogether. Everybody took a turn at front, and we crossed the Mopac bridge with only a couple repeats left to do. New Amy led the last repeat, and we all regrouped for the easy cooldown run to Auditorium Shores. Very solid running on the fartlek segments, and the cooldown run was still fairly quick at about 9:00 pace, but it felt really easy after the fast stuff.

When we got to Auditorium Shores, we were getting ready to do our strides and join Gilbert for his balance drills, but he had other ideas. He yelled at us to do one more mile of cooldown running, so grudgingly, we gathered back up and did that extra easy mile of running at his bequest. There was some grumbling among the pack, but as usual, we did what he said to do.

Splits: 10:30, 9:20 (warmup miles), then 8:07, 8:20, 7:43, and .65 miles at 7:35 for the fast sections, including the easy jogging bits...the fast running was obviously fast in a lot of spots. Finished it off with cooldown miles at 8:59, .4 miles at 9:03, and that extra cooldown mile at 9:38. For the day, 8.3 miles (including striders), overall average pace 8:51.

By the time we were doing our strides, he was getting antsy, and stopped us after 4 striders to join the balance drills. The drills were fun, and I felt like I was loosening up as we progressed through them. Once we were done, I hung out for a much needed stretching session with Alex, Brian and Charlene. It was another good workout with my Gazelles friends. Nice.

The rest of the week is easy running or days off, with a return to the gym tomorrow. The big 20 mile race on Sunday is the highlight of the week, of course. More on that as Gilbert reveals to me what my race assignment will be. I'll go and drive the course tomorrow for recon.

My tuneup massage with Ron turned up no terrible knots or damage, and after a couple of days of easy workouts, I'll be ready for the 20 miler. Now, I've got to go and put all the Christmas decorations up in the attic. Yee haw.