Back At It

AM: 25 min. w/u (2.5 miles)
Target: 6x2 min. on, 2 min. off
2 mile c/d
Total: 8-8.5 miles
15 min. ice bath
PM: 3 miles
30 mins. pool

Without question, this is the first day in several months I've felt like I was actually training. Our first day of official team practice was jam-packed with action, including everything listed above plus several hours of meetings. I was thoroughly exhausted by day's end, but glad to be back at it.

The workout at McAlpine this morning was okay but not great. Actually, my hips/pelvis felt all out of whack, almost like I need to be adjusted. I'm attributing this entirely to the previous days' lengthy drive. Whatever the cause, things never felt like they completely clicked into place, and throughout the workout my range of mobility felt somewhat limited. Not sure what I can do about this right now but I'm hoping it'll work itself out naturally.

As for the actual intervals, I ran entirely with Stephanie "Pezz" Pezzullo, a former ZAP runner who now lives in Charlotte and is coached by Simmons. I thought she would leave me behind from the gun, but fortunately (for me) she too had a long drive the day before and was feeling rather sluggish. We matched each other stride for stride until the very last interval, when she finally cranked into another gear and left me a few meters behind, but overall I was pleased to be able to hang with her. Neither of us are sure what pace we were hitting during our "on" sections but we both felt like it was faster than 6:00 pace (indeed, the one 1/4 mile interval I actually charted from marker to marker was covered in just under 90 seconds). Not blazing, but passable. Overall I'm looking forward to getting in more workouts together, as I feel we complement each other nicely.

Also of note, the heat and humidity were horrendous. The heat was no worse but certainly no better than in Norman, but the humidity was definitely higher. I doubt I've sweated that much on a run in quite some time, and even several minutes after we finished I was still literally dripping. Pretty gross. I can't wait for the crisp, cool weather of autumn to arrive. Until then I suppose I'll just have to continue to tough it out.