Coach for a Day

I ran early again today. Jake was out of town and I was {{{Coach for a Day}}}. So I had to get my workout in early. I ran a solid 60 minutes this morning gradually working my HR up into the 140's which is much higher than I have been running as of late. It was cool and overcast so all I had to do was "move along". Actually I felt like I was going pretty fast until I rounded the Miller Track and watched as a young girl just pulled away from me like I was standing still. I could make the lame excuse that she was not running when I showed up and stopped before I finished my run, but the truth (THE TRUTH!) is that my faster pace running still isn't that fast. Still, all in all I was able to tap into a high heart rate with no apparent distress. I am late in the game to be hoping for this, but I "hope" the steady erosion of my training pace will reverse itself. The end game is that I will get slower but my goal is to buy a few years for myself.

The volunteer army (well, the cross country team members) started to show up at around 9 and despite my deepest fears, the group swelled to over 20 runners. I kept things low key talking about the workout which was a two mile sustained tempo run and things seemed to go okay. I said that if any of them felt that they didn't want to do the workout, there would be no problem. Then I sent them out on a two mile warmup run through the neighborhood. When they got back I had them do 4 regular striders and then let them rest a bit. They mostly chatted and seemed relaxed. I told the girls that they could take their cell phones with them on the time trial and they laughed.

"You never know when an important call might come in," I said.

Once they lined up I started them off running the 4 lap course. Lucca came and helped on the backside making sure the kids stayed on the course.

The fastest runners was in the low 11's and a group came in just under 12 minutes. The fastest girls were in the low 13's. The whole group finished and was glad that they didn't have to run another step. We walked one loop of the course as a warmdown. Everyone was very animated and chatted it up. Lucca and I talked about his training. I told him that I thought he was going to do very well but to stay connected with what meant the most to him. Track or cross country. Understand where you can excel and use the rest as the path to that goal.

Makes me want to be young and fast again. A mingling of victory and some defeat (read that disappointment). But it's worth it.