Return to Speedwork

Another crisp and clear morning greeted us today as a fairly numerous group gathered for mile repeats. With Tuesday classes being cancelled for the holiday tomorrow, we got some of the Tuesday/Thursday crowd to join us for the festivities. On the menu today was mile repeats. For the AT&T peeps, somewhere in the 5-6 range for repeats, but for recovering marathoners like me, maybe 3 or 4.

Nice conversation as we rolled over to Zilker with Amy, Marcy and Brian, then drills. The call to the post happened next, as Gilbert got the groups together, with their target times. I was in a big pack of maybe 12 runners, many of whom I knew were about my speed for usual workouts, so I figured I was in the right place. At our imaginary beep, we were off. Almost immediately, I realized that we were moving a lot quicker than the normal reconnaissance pace for the first repeat. It felt okay, just a little quick. I soon found myself hanging out at the back of the pack. I managed to close up on the group a bit towards the end of the repeat, but even so, I was surprised to see that my caboose finishing position scored me a 7:08 repeat. Go figure!

2 minutes rest seemed luxurious, and we were off again. This time, I finished maybe 2 people from the back of the group, and still scored a 7:03 repeat. Those folks at the front of the pack were doing some serious repeating! My third repeat was 7:02, and given that I was just coming back to speedwork, I called it a day. I felt fine, and four repeats wouldn't have been terrible, but for a first workout, this was enough. Anne and I ran a slower (8:25) mile repeat for a warmdown lap while our peeps were doing their fourth and fifth repeats, and then I ran back with the gang once they were done.

It was good to meet Martha, at least to put a name to a face, and as always it was fun to hang out with my friends. I stuck around for a while afterwards, once I bundled up with warm and dry clothes, and talked at length with Alex, John, James, Gilbert, and Margaret. Good times...

For the day, about 7.75 total miles, and I'm happy to be back with the speedwork portion of the program. I think we're doing fartleks on Wednesday, which I usually enjoy, so that will make for a good week. A good day at the running office!

New Year's Eve plans? Nope. Don't usually do that, and this year is no exception. I'll cook up a nice dinner here at the hacienda, and we'll try to stay up to watch the ball drop at Times Square. Scintillating, eh? :-) Be safe out there, and let's start 2008 on a good note.