Fartleks With a New Herd

All day Tuesday was taken up by the computer rehab, so I didn't get to do either a run or a gym workout. Bummer. I was ready for action today, though, and again joined the newly large group of Gazelles for our fartlek tour of the trail. Gilbert wasn't there, so he sent Bernard in his stead to send us out. After some milling about, we got going. Our pace range was newly enhanced by a bunch of new folks (I met Shelly today, for instance), and after the easy 19 minutes or so of warmup running, the group slowly split into as many as four smaller pods. I was running with Shelly most of the way, and we dropped some folks and then gathered some others from groups that had gone out faster, ending up with the two of us and Rachel at the end of the run.

Even the warmup running was quicker than usual, with the new people bringing some extra energy to the proceedings. We were around 9:20-9:30 pace for the easier running, right at 2 miles. After it was time to "go!," we commenced the 10 x 2:00 fartleks, with 1:00 recovery jogging between the faster bits. From the start, I think we were going faster than normal, but that's okay. We did our last accelerated bit, ending at the footbridge at the one mile marker, and from there, it was a nice easier last mile to Auditorium Shores. Done!

The numbers? The fast section was 3.7 miles knocked out at 7:55/mile pace overall, which was really moving along, considering the 10 minutes of recovery jogging in that portion of the day. Our fast 2:00 segments must have been in the low 7:00 range. With all the warmup and cooldown added, we scored 7 miles, more or less, at 8:36/mile overall pace. This was quick little workout today!

Those last couple of fartlek intervals were a mental test, that's for sure! Once we were done, a bunch of us stayed around for stretching, and it was just a good day of running. To the gym now!

Gymunology

I drove right to Gold's before I lost my desire to do so, and knocked out a good little workout there. The shorter core routine and upper body were on the schedule today. I felt good, and I can see that I'm making continued progress on the upper body exercises. It's a process, but I'm sneaking back up on the sort of shape I was in shortly before Freescale.

Tomorrow, I plan to join the peeps for the full 7 mile recovery run followed by a gym visit.

Book Alert!!!

My Page A Day Booklovers Calendar convinced me to pick up a copy of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. The author's goal is to present a heavy dose of practical science in a format that is entertaining and informative. I must say, he's succeeding in a big way with me. I have a science background from college, so I had a passing familiarity with some of the topics in this book, but I've really enjoyed the 250 pages or so that I've read thus far. We've covered Geology, Paleontology, Physics, Chemistry, and a host of other topics, and it's great reading. Bryson has a wry sense of humor about the great men and women of science and their lives, and it's been fascinating so far. For what it's worth, I highly recommend this book. I checked it out of the library, and you should, too. :-) Just wait until you read about what lurks beneath Yellowstone Park!