Dancing In The Dark

The weather returned to good old chilly and clear this morning, so we got to enjoy that while taking laps around the Zilker soccer field complex. The mood was good as we all cruised over to Zilker and got drilled up. Gilbert gave us a few words about the workout, and then it was time to group up. At that point, things got a little jumbled, since a lot of us don't really know who's who yet in the new groups. The first group went out, though, and then when no one stepped forward for the second group, a bunch of us took off as a mob for our workout.

We started out sort of slow, but by about halfway through the repeat, I had worked my way up to the front, and we were moving a little more smartly by the end of that loop. The gates were locked across the road at two points on the Zilker loop, which made the start/finish a little compacted, and it made for a brief cross-country detour at about the 3/4 mile mark. For the last three repeats, I was in a smaller pack, and ran with two guys who are new to me. I've talked with one of them, but not the other. Note to self: Ask people their name! Anyway, we were very consistent on the last three repeats, and I was done. I had to get back to make sure Jake got on the school bus. Teenagers. The sun was just coming up over the horizon when we knocked out that fourth repeat, and was the only time I could really see the road all morning. It was a nice sunrise, though.

I ran back with Amy, and we had a fun talk. So, for the day, 4 x 2000m repeats (actually 1.18 miles). 8:57, 8:40, 8:42, 8:42. Average pace was 7:21/mile, which is about right for the slightly longer repeats compared to the mile repeats last week. I felt good all morning long, and if time had permitted, a fifth repeat wouldn't have been a terrible ordeal. That's all good.

Total mileage for the day was a shade over 8 miles. I'm looking forward already to the tour on Saturday of the 3M half marathon course. That course is fun even in training, with a gentle downhill trend the whole way.