Meriden, the LP version

The wacky weather delivered a humid 65 degree morning to us today, after the crisp weekend weather. Go figure. Gilbert had those of us doing longer races this spring and summer leave from the main RunTex location for a long warmup/cooldown, so Carrie, Amy, Tonya, Frank, Rachel, Colleen, and Jennifer all left together for the journey to Meriden for the 1000m hilly repeats. It seems like forever to get all the way over to the Meriden hills, but it's really only 3.1 miles. Going over, we averaged 9:30/mile, a reasonable warmup pace. The people who left from the Lake Austin RunTex were done with drills when we got there, so I did an abbreviated set of drills just to loosen up a bit, and it was time to start repeating.

I paired up with Carrie, who I thought told me that Gilbert wanted her to run with me so I could pace her through the workout. Turns out, Carrie usually goes out too fast and hates the last repeats at Meriden, so she just decided that I'd be a good pace partner for the day. I didn't find that out until later, though. And, right before we started, I foolishly asked Gilbert how many repeats I should do. He said, "For you, there is no question!" Chastened, I joined Carrie at the start line for the first of 5 repeats. :-)

I guess I did what Carrie needed, but as the repeats went on, and on, and on, we each had times when we were doing the pace work. The first repeat was faster than I usually start, and we got faster on every subsequent repeat, which is how I hope the workout goes every time. On the last repeat, though, on the way up that first tough hill, I was thinking how great it would be if Carrie pulled away on that one so I could back off a little. Sadly, I found another gear instead, and stayed with her until the last hill to the finish, where I pushed ahead slightly. It was yet another example of what subtle peer pressure from within your pace group can do for you.

Splits: 4:56, 4:55, 4:50, 4:47, 4:45. Average pace probably 7:14/mile on a hilly course. Average split was 4:51, quicker than I usually have done this workout. Carrie really helped today to get me to push a little harder, and it didn't feel like seriously bad running. Yes, my legs felt pretty dead on that hill starting the fifth repeat, but I pushed through that. And, yes, I had to put hands on knees to catch my breath after the last couple of repeats, but during the runs themselves, I felt more or less in control of my pace. It was a great Meriden workout!

Of course, that's just the main course for Meriden. There was still dessert to come. 5 uphill striders, which were actually pretty reasonable today, and then 3 backwards uphill striders, which I managed to finish this time without falling on my butt. Once done, your quads are pretty well cooked, but it's a good kind of tired, right?

I paired up with Frank for the cooldown run, and we ran along with Amy and Tonya for a pretty sprightly 8:45/mile average for the 3.1 cooldown miles. For the day, 10.1 miles, and that makes for a nice start to the running week!

I stuck around for most of the full stretching routine with Carrie, and then it was time to get going. Now, will I get back to the gym this week? That seems to be the big question for me. The running seems to be totally on track...but the gym is an important part of the whole package, too.