Yesterday I got out to La Salle at 6:45pm to get a Track workout in. Upon arriving...An eerie, quiet, familiar, yet ghostly ambiance filled the air. I hadn't been on that cement track in 10 years, and it still managed to look EXACTLY the same, with the exception of some new grass patches that have grown between the lanes, and faded lines. If I closed my eyes, I could see myself lining up to the 2 mile race, Montalvo in the Green Announcer Tower, Coach Martinez with his Belen Cap by the High Jump mat, and my heart throbbing so loud I could hear it. When I opened my eyes, I found myself lining up for 4, 1 mile repeats with essentially a group of strangers and some familiar faces...in an emotional tug-0-war between the past and the present.
The best part of this workout was being held accountable for showing up, and finishing the workout. There are times we say we will do something, but then we "excuse" our way out of it by rationalizing and our training tends to get the short end of the stick.
The group that was out there doing runs varied in age and pace...and that's what makes running so amazing, we all lined up on that track for the same workout.
I was conservative in my goal pace setting, thinking that it had been a long week, and an even longer day...not to mention the crazy hot humid weather...so I shot for 6:35/6:40pace (which I know my running partner, Paola, would have crindged at the mear thought of anything above 6 minutes). To my surprise, I came through the first lap at 1:25, first half mile right under 3 minutes, and then just tried to keep it even (with no watch) but ended up holding back a little to come by the first mile in 6:15.
Clearly it was below my goal pace but I felt great and smooth, so I didn't want to hold back too much. In workouts and runs, some of us tend to err on the side of caution and HOLD BACK so that we don't DIE in the middle of the run...but that's what workouts are for! They are meant for us to push ourselves to that point where we HURT like we are going to throw up, that our legs go so fast that they are going to unhindge, and that our heart pumps so hard it feels like it's going to pump right out of our hearts.
So to not bore you with more times, I'll just tell you that I kept it steady, around the same pace for the next 2 and then pushed on the last one, not at hard as I could, but harder than I had initially planned.
As I came around the track on the last lap, the full moon was already nice and bright, and the sun was almost done setting. It was a great feeling to run that barefoot cool-down drenched in sweat, feeling tired, feeling strong, feeling down-right happy.
Try the workout out and see what times you hit.
-Happy Running
If you're interested in training with Tri2one, they meet every Thursday at LaSalle High School for the running part of their triatholon Training program: www.tri2one.com |