Single Lap Bursts by the Dozen

This morning, it was slightly cooler than Monday, and it actually felt allright to me out there. Maybe I'm starting to adjust to the heat? Anyway, we met up at RunTex and headed over to Austin High School for our appointment with 400m repeats. Alex was with us again, and Frank and Marcy were here today as well. Richard and Jennifer were missing, but that's all from our group. We drilled, and then it was time to get to work. I had "Love Shack" by the B-52's stuck in my head this morning, but that changed by the end of the workout.

Rich and Shannon got promoted on this workout, running up with Alex, Frank, Marcy and some other faster folks. Still, we had a big group, including John and Mark, new guys, and a girl who I didn't meet. No times were assigned, but Gilbert said if we were running the 5K Bun Run this Sunday, we should do 12 x 400m, the last one fast. We sort of agreed on a target time of 1:40/lap, subject to change. I led the first one, maybe the second one, and Brian, Rachel, Emily and others led various other laps, plus I took a few more here and there, setting the pace. Gilbert didn't notice this shifting, though, and yelled at us to get more different people up front setting the pace so "Jay didn't do all the work." I kept trying to tell him that we were doing that, but he wasn't buying it. He even assigned some lap leaders as the workout went on, so that everyone led at least one lap. With all that distraction, we stayed pretty consistent, and ended up with a nice bunch of splits. Everyone completed the assignment, and I even set a new single lap PR on the last lap, so it was a great workout!

Splits: 1:40, 1:37, 1:37, 1:39, 1:40, 1:38, 1:38, 1:39, 1:37, 1:37, 1:39, 1:27. Avg pace right at 1:37, or 6:31/mile pace.

Afterwards, the Fila rep was there to have us test drive some of their new shoes, and we all had some fun jogging around in new kicks. I liked the new Providence II's, but I need them in a 12 1/2 size, so I'll check them out in RunTex sometime soon. The ride was great, but they felt a little pinched in a size 12. For our trouble, we got to score some free Fila gear, and I picked up a nice pair of Fila running shorts. Pretty sweet!

Comfortable return cooldown run felt great, and I was much more refreshed than after Monday's mile repeats. For the day, about 6.7 miles. Oh, yeah, "Pink Cadillac" was stuck in my brain after the workout...Bruce Springsteen's original version.

I did the full stretching regimen with Alex, and Shannon and Rachel also did most of the routine. It was a pretty good day. Now, I need to get psyched up for somewhere between 7 and 10 miles tomorrow, nice and easy, since I won't be able to go long on Saturday. That won't be much fun by myself, but maybe it'll cool off a little more tonight?