Fast Times at Grady High

AM: 4 miles
PM: 16 min. w/u (2 miles)
Target: 8x800 @2:55 w/2 min. rest
Actual: 2:56, 2:54, 2:52, 2:52, 2:53, 2:52, 2:49, 2:45
16 min. c/d (2 miles)
Total: ~8.5 miles

I don't known if it was the gallon of coffee I drank at Panera, or perhaps the panic induced by learning that my landlord found someone to move into my place in five days, but for whatever reason I was itching to get out the door for my afternoon run. Since I'm feeling almost 100% recovered from my cold, I decided to attempt Tuesday's track workout. The wind finally died down and the sun was shining brightly; it was definitely a beautiful afternoon for a workout.

After an easy warmup from my house and a few minutes of stretching, I jumped right into the intervals. It occurred to me midway through the first one that I hadn't the slightest idea what the rest was supposed to be. I vaguely remembered taking two minutes on a similar workout I did with Jordan and Scotty D in the summer so I decided to go with that. Right away I could tell that the prescribed pace felt quite comfortable and my legs were turning over nicely. I decided that since I felt so good I should focus on maintaining form with my arms and also on my positioning within the lane. I've noticed--and Jordan yelled at me for this the last time we worked out--that I tend to run too close to the inside stripe. This could be a problem if I fall into that habit, so today I made a conscious, even exaggerated, effort to stay within the middle of the lane on the curves.

Halfway through the workout I was still feeling great, and decided that I would crank the final two intervals after maintaining on 5 and 6. It felt great to open up the stride, especially on the last one, and even though I was running hard it was nowhere near all out. I was also pleased with how my form and breathing held up even when pressing. This is the best I've felt on a workout since before MCM, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

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Back on (Grady) Track

AM: 4 miles
PM: 15 min. w/u (2 miles)
Target: 8-12x400 in low 80s w/1 min. rest
Actual: 82, 80, 80, 80, 80, 80, 80, 80, 79, 79
16 min. c/d (2 miles)
Total: 6.5 miles

Today was super busy from a real life perspective, and the daylight almost got away from me before I headed out the door for my afternoon workout. I guess the Atlanta weather is trying to prove a point or something, because temperatures were in the mid 60s this afternoon and I was comfortable--warm, even--in short sleeves and shorts. An alternate title for this post could've been "Outrunning the Storm," as the wind was picking up and the sky looked pretty dangerous when I was jogging my warmup. As everyone knows, I tend to melt in the rain, so I was really hoping to get this in before the downpour started.

Oh, and I can't believe it took me until the second paragraph to mention the most exciting news of all: I ran at Grady High School track AND didn't get kicked off! Up top. I seem to have a knack for being unceremoniously evicted from high school tracks--both on the east coast and the west coast--so today's uneventful experience was a refreshing departure from the usual.

As for the actual workout, it went pretty well. Unlike last Tuesday's intervals where I felt frantic and out of control the entire time, I felt pretty smooth and restrained throughout. Jeff had advised I do 8 to 12 repeats, and after I finished #8 I told myself if I ran the following two under 80 seconds that I'd call it a day. If not, I'd make myself do the final two. Whether laziness or determination was the real motivator, at any rate I clocked just under 80 for #9 and #10 and was happy to peace out. My foot is a bit tender after spending the entire workout on my toes, but I'm not too worried about it. I'm still wearing trainers despite wanting to get back into the T5s and I'm hopeful that will pay off in the long run. All in all, a solid workout and confidence builder for this weekend's relay.

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Breaking the Law, Living on the Edge

25 min. w/u (3+ miles)
Target: 25x400m @85 secs. w/60 sec. rest
Actual: 86, 85, ~7 min. jog, 86, 84, 83, 85, 84, 85, 85, 85, 84, 86, 85, 85, 83, 83, 84, 84, 83, 84, 85, 85
18 min. c/d (2+ miles)
Total: 12 miles

I mean, why must everything be difficult? All I wanted to do was go to the track, run a few laps, mind my own business, and get on with my life. Things started to go awry early on when I discovered that every gate I'd ever used to enter the Grady track was padlocked. Being the resourceful gal that I am, I did find one entrance that opened onto a ramp that led to the bleachers, which I proceeded to run down and then hop over the wall onto the track. I had no sooner finished my second interval when I noticed the police officer standing on the other side of the fence and motioning me to come over. Long story short, my presence was no longer welcome there.

At this point, I had few options available. I could cry about it (which I did, literally, but only for 2.7 seconds), I could jog around and turn this into a distance run, or I could run over to the AO and attempt the workout on the gravel surface. None of these sounded ideal, but I was determined to get in a quality run, so off to the Oval I went.

To be honest, this whole debacle threw me off my game both physically and mentally, and my attitude was pretty piss poor as I jogged through the park. Once I reached the Oval, the workout started out shaky but I finally found a rhythm. I gotta be honest though, the gravel surface felt so slow after being on the track and it was frustrating to feel like I was literally spinning my wheels the whole time. By the time I got to 20 (22 total), I was pretty much done. I think the frustration of transitioning from the track to the oval caused me to push too hard too soon, and I wanted to end on a positive note instead of straggling home on the last few. Also, the humidity was so ridiculous that I was actually wringing sweat out of my shorts after each interval...lucky you, now you can enjoy that visual for a while.

All things considered, I deem this workout a success. I kept the rest at no more than a minute (barring the 7-minute jaunt between #2 and #3), and I felt strong and in control throughout. Now I just need to find another place to do track workouts, I suppose. And a new pair of shorts.

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A Jilane Kind of Day

25 min. w/u (3+ miles)
Target: 2k in 7:30 (w/800m rest), mile in 5:55 (400m rest), 1200m in 4:21 (400m), 1k in 3:35 (400m), 800 in 2:44 (200m), 600 in 2:08 (200m), 400 in 65 (200m), 200 fast (collapse on track)
Actual: 2k in 7:33 (800m), mile in 5:59 (400m), 1200 in 4:22. Kicked off the track.
23 min. c/d (3 miles)
Total: 10 miles

After a lower mileage weekend and a lackluster run yesterday, I was really hoping for a solid workout this morning. But, alas, it was not to be. Unfortunately the combination of arriving home at midnight last night, plus needing to catch up on office work, plus having a 9:30am conference call resulted in me not even heading out to the track until after 10. At this point it was dreadfully hot and humid (not sure where last week's mild weather went), and I was feeling sluggish and thirsty before the workout even started.

That said, I ran the first few intervals decently, but could tell I was losing steam quickly. My fatigue dovetailed nicely with the arrival of the world's largest PE class. That's right, high school is back in session here in this glorious state, and apparently they're trying to induce heat exhaustion on all their students. That's the only logical explanation for why a coach would bring a class of 50 15-year-old kids out to the track in the middle of the day in August. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for that, but at least have the courtesy to wait until I'm done wogging. For a millisecond I entertained the idea of continuing the workout on the AO, but I knew it would only go downhill and I wasn't up for the humiliation. If I'm gonna go to the well this week, I'd rather it be during Hood to Coast. Would've loved to double this evening, but I had a work event from 5 to 9, so I'm hoping to catch up on mileage during the back half of the week.

Oh, by the way, the title is her words, not mine. =)

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Back to the Track

AM: 27 min. w/u (3.5 miles)
16x300 w/100m jog (35 sec.) recovery
Target: 4x60 sec., 4x59, 4x58, 4x57
Actual: (58, 60, 61, 60); (60, 61, 61, 60); (60, 60, 59, 59); (59, 59, 58, 58)
20 min. c/d (2.5 miles)
Total: 10 miles
PM: 29 mins.
4 miles

My hamstring was a bit stiff upon waking up this morning, but I think it might be more due to the massage than anything. Regardless, I took an extra-long warmup to make sure it was nice and loose before hitting the track. Today was a preview of what fall workouts will be like: lower temps (70 degrees at the start), lower humidity (51%) and a light breeze. It was even overcast the entire time, which kept things mild throughout. Definitely best case scenario weather conditions for a morning track workout in August.

Looking back on when I attempted this same workout exactly one month ago, some clear fitness improvements are evident. For starters, I actually completed the workout this time instead of bailing at 12. Also I kept every one of the "rest" jogs between 33-36 seconds, whereas last time I was struggling to keep them at 40. That said, I was still nowhere near hitting the desired splits (deja vu from last Thursday), so clearly I still have a long way to go. But my legs felt pretty bouncy on the cool down jog, and my hamstring was loose throughout, so overall I was okay with how things panned out today.

I set out for my pm jaunt about 4 minutes after it started raining. Now I don't mind if it starts raining mid-run, but I'm kind of a pansy when it comes to starting out in the rain. Nonetheless I put on my big girl pants and headed out and back on the Freedom Trail along Ponce. Wouldn't you know, it actually felt kinda nice.

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Cutting Shapes: the ATL Version

23 min. w/u (3 miles)
20x400 in sets of 5 w/30 secs rest b/t each; 1 lap jog b/t sets
Target: first set 83, second set 82, third set 81, last set 80
Actual: (82, 83, 83, 84, 84); (82, 82, 83, 83, 84); (83, 82, 83, 84, 84); (82, 82, 84, 83, 81)
16 min. c/d (2 miles)
Total: ~11 miles

So, remember how a few months ago we did 10x400 for our first track workout? With one lap jog after EACH interval? How I miss those days. Today's formidable workout basically doubled the number of intervals while cutting the rest in half. To be honest, I was pretty sure going into it that things were going to go badly. In fact, even though Jeff had told me I had no "outs" (meaning I couldn't call the workout even if I started falling off the pace), I was fully prepared to peace out after three sets if things were going south.

That said, I felt decent on my warmup down to and through the park, and by the time I hit the track at Grady High School I was ready to put forth my best effort. The first set was quite a shock to my system, as I'm just not used to running at this pace very often (read: never). The second set wasn't much better; in fact, looking back, I probably felt my worst on intervals 7-9. Even though the 30 seconds between each interval flew by, I tried to keep the rest as honest as possible, so I was pleased with that aspect. I wasn't so pleased with how closely I hugged the inside of lane 1 the entire time. Had I been running a real track meet I would've been disqualified for riding the inside stripe like my dad rides the bumpy things in the center of the road.

Somewhere around interval 12 I got my second wind. Actually, it wasn't so much a second wind as it was me getting pissed off at my pansy-like attitude. I figured if Quentin Cassidy can run 20x400 three times in one workout, then I sure as hell can do it once (granted, he is a fictional character in a fictional story, but let's not focus on all the wrong details). After the third set I approached a group of maintenance workers in the infield and asked--nay, begged--in the crudest broken Spanish ever spoken if they could spare any water. I'm not sure whether they understood the words as much as recognized the look of sheer exhaustion/dehydration on my face, because they handed over an entire bottle of tasty refreshing agua and wished me luck. If only they had spoken francais, I could've thanked them much more eloquently.

With a new lease on life, I pressed on into the last set determined to give it everything I had. I closed the last interval in my fastest split of the morning--still slower than I was supposed to be running, but who's counting. I wasn't too stoked about the uphill run home, but my legs felt decent and I made it back uneventfully.

In summary, I was proud of myself for finishing the workout. Granted, I was nowhere close to hitting the splits, and I'm clearly far from attaining my desired level of fitness, but I was pleased to run these intervals only slightly slower than I did on the first "baby" workout in June. I would love to run a few easy miles tonight to shake things out, but my boss is coming into town to travel with me for the rest of the week so it's not likely. Goal for the day is to use every spare moment to rehydrate.

Honey
It's been a long time coming
And I can't stop now
Such a long time running
And I can't stop now
Do you hear my heart beating
Can you hear that sound
Cause I can't help thinking
That I won't look down
--Coldplay, "Gravity"

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300s, Sort Of

25 min w/u (3 miles)
12x300 w/100 jog
(60, 59, 60, 59, 59, 58, 58, 59, 59, 58, 59, 58)
25 min c/d (3 miles)
Total: 9 miles

Well. This didn't go quite as planned. The workout was originally billed as 16x300 in sets of four (58s for the first set, 57s for the second, and so on). For some reason, however, I just couldn't get it into gear. I started off hitting the first one in 60 and just couldn't cut it down much after that. Even the 100m "rest" jog, which was supposed to be in 35, I couldn't hit any faster than 38-40. Since I wasn't hitting the splits or getting much faster, I cut the workout after 12. I had been running at Grady High School, just across the street from Piedmont Park, so I headed over to the park to do some of my cool down.




One of the trails in Piedmont Park

What's interesting is that I lengthened the wog home, spent some more time in the park, and my legs felt fine. By the end they felt no more fatigued than they would on a regular run, despite having just run a hard (partial) workout. No flailing about on the Inman Middle School steps, which I suppose is a small victory. Overall I'm not upset about the workout--as I think my effort Tuesday was a more accurate gauge of my current fitness--just slightly perplexed as to why I was struggling to run 300s at a pace I could normally split en route to a 400.

I stretched for a bit when I got home, and man are my hamstrings stiff. I haven't been to yoga in over two weeks and it shows. I'll probably do a short shakeout run tonight to keep the legs loose.

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