Reps on the Track

Cool morning. Overcast. Threatening to rain. Wind blowing down from the hills.

Jake and I met at WVC and were very businesslike about the workout. Not too much sandbagging. I had grabbed an extra 5 and half minutes warm up going to the bathroom and back. Jake rolled in and we ran our loop. I was at 28 minutes upon reaching gate to the track. The club was running tennis court loops so we saw very little of them.

We did some striders. Jake made a strong recommendation that we start at our normal 200 meter mark so we would be running into the wind when we were fresh and with the wind at our back down the home stretch.

I did the first one in 88 and as usual my body asked me the question. What the hell do you think you are doing? We walked 400 (no walk-jog today). The second was a bit easier. I ran off Jake's shoulder and picked it up down the backside to get an 87. Still labored breathing afterwards telling me that, like it or not, this is new territory. The next one was 86 but by now I was in the mood. The last was 83 with a strong last 100 meters.

So 88-87-86-83.

My average was 86 courtesy of the final 400. If I age graded the workout it was like running a 66 second average back when I was 30.

A vast improvement over two weeks ago when I averaged 91 with an 84 on the last one. Still, the workout was tough enough and Jake owned most of the 25 minute jog back to where we had parked our cars until he tripped over a root within shouting distance of the final stretch. He bounced back up with only a cut knee but his hands were good thanks to the gloves he was wearing.

I seemed to have recovered from Wednesday's workout well enough to run an improved time on all 4 reps today. I will stay the course for now. Tempo on Wednesday and reps on Saturday.