Saturday, January 9, 2010

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Day 3.

Cold. That is the best way to describe how I felt when I woke up. It was track day, though I had a little concern. Not about the cold, but the prescribed speed for today.

Over the past few months I have been training to hold my speed in check. Today I would have an opportunity to crack open the valve a little. Not an all out, and certainly not the 1:07 -1:10 I once ripped off in a quarter mile, but a 1:31 or roughly 10 seconds faster than I had trained for the marathon. It was my hope that it would not feel too hard.

Arriving at LTF, it was Jay, Corey (training for Boston), but no Jeff who is fighting a nagging cold. Corey had already put in two miles on the Treadmill, and darted off to the track, of all things I had to tell him, hey, I’m not warmed up yet slow down. I’m either learning of getting soft. I’ll go with wisdom for now.

At the track it seemed a little colder as there was nothing to block a wind that swept the back half of the track. Cold weather is tolerable if you are appropriately dressed. The sky was wide open, no clouds to capture the earths radiant heat, a nice winter morning, the stars made it seem peaceful, much like the quiet before the storm. After a quick two laps, we stripped to our track gear, mine, an Under Amour shirt, a long sleeve tech shirt, wind breaker and tights. Gloves and a hat an absolute necessity. We were ready to go. While Jay and I were setting our watches, Corey was off… He was on his plan, Jay and I are on ours. Watches ready, off we went. Rounding the second curve you ran into the wind, strong, but not unbearable.

As this was a new pace, it was difficult to find the cadence necessary for the targeted 1:31 time. At the two hundred I was fast, 0:40 and backed it off hitting the first lap at 1:24, Jay did better, 1:26. We never hit our goal time of 1:31, I hit a 1:30 on my last try. The other times were 1:28, 1:29. Not bad, the workout was 8 x 400 with a 400 RI. Work was done, but it was not too difficult. It felt good to add a little extra speed, but I was pleased that there was more in the tank. How much more, I do not know yet.

Running back to the gym, I started to feel the workout a little more, also the cold was setting in as my body temperature dropped from the reduced effort on the cool down run. A quick stretch and I was off to put Wil on the bus.

The day was filled with work and family. All good things. My weight. I refuse to mark it down. I am gaining weight. I feel like I am a bear getting ready for hibernation, everything I put in my body is turning directly into fat.

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