Ah, yes, Jethro Tull. Don't know what they're trying to say in that song, but they rhyme "...present tense" with "...audience," so you see what you're dealing with here. :-)
As for today's return to GazelleHood, a fairly small but enthusiastic group gathered after tiptoeing down to RunTex in our cars. It was mostly the fast and superfast Gazelles, but there were a few folks there around my speed, so I'd have someone to pace along with on the workout. It was cold, about 33 degrees, but I felt good out in the elements. The warmup run was interesting, as we had to sort of skate across the Pfluger pedestrian bridge since it was covered with a sheet of ice all the way across. The circular ramp was especially entertaining. Drills drilled, we were ready to go.
Gilbert divided up the groups and gave out target times for the 800's. When it got to my group, the last group, I suggested 3:30 per 800m if we were doing 10 x 800, and he agreed that would be a good pace. So, off we went. We had two new guys (new to me, at least) from the Tu/Thursday group, Brian, Leslie, and Liliana. It was dark, of course, but after a slightly slower first 800m, we really got locked into almost perfect pacing for the bulk of the workout. Leslie and I, especially, stuck together as a little subgroup, especially after the 5th repeat. Brian took off with Liliana after that, and the two new guys only had to do 6 repeats, so Leslie and I were a group of two to the end of the workout. Brian pulled up after 8 repeats, as did Liliana (she was only supposed to do 8 anyway), but Leslie and I pushed and pulled each other along through those last two tough repeats. I felt pretty good until number 9, and I had to do some mental gymnastics to get myself through that one. The last one is always the easiest to start, since it's the last one (duh), but it's the hardest to finish, because that coach of ours "suggests" that we pick it up on the last repeat. Leslie and I accomplished our mission, and on balance, I was pleased with the workout results.
After the ice-related layoff, it was great to get out and run fast with my friends, but my legs were a bit heavy. No aches or pains, but I didn't feel as fluid as usual. I've got some stretching and other work to do between now and Saturday morning so that I get through the 22 miler in good shape!
Splits: 3:33, 3:27, 3:31, 3:29, 3:29, 3:28, 3:29, 3:28, 3:28, 3:24. Average for 10x800m was 3:29, or 7:00/mile pace. Not too shabby. For "Yasso" repeats, this allegedly says I'm up for a 3:29 marathon, but I'm still not convinced about that correlation between the 800m workout and the 26.2 mile race. :-) Last year about this time, I did only 8x800m at average of 3:29, so I'm a little bit better this year. I was off my 3:25 type pacing from the last couple of 800m repeat workouts this season, but not horribly so.
Alex and I did the cooldown run together, and took the steps up to the Pfluger bridge. However, it was still a careful walk across the bridge to get back to RunTex. There was a lot of tree limb debris and other junk on the trail, so it looks like Town Lake got out of its banks during the heavy rains over the weekend.
For the day, 8.8 miles. I chatted a bit with Pete and Gilbert after changing into warm clothes, and got my logistical orders for the water/Powerade coolers on Saturday morning. Then, I had to go home and get the kids to school (they started 2 hours later than usual this morning).
One interesting thing while driving home was watching big chunks of flat ice flying off of cars and crashing into cars trailing behind. We're talking one foot square pieces coming loose, flying up into the air, and turning into little bombs. Cool if it wasn't your car that got hit by the debris.
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1 comment:
Wish I could have joined you all - it was a tough workout to do solo. Also wish that Yasso thing really worked, but I'm thinking it's pretty far off - at least for me - oh, well. See you Saturday for more fun.
Sue
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