Tuesday at the track

For once, it was nice weather at the track on a Tuesday. 54F (12C) & overcast, with a gentle breeze. It's raining now, but then it was nice.

That was about the only nice thing about my workout. The running club was at the track, which is always kind of irritating. I had to move over frequently to let them have the inside lanes, or risk getting run over. My boss actually works out w/that club sometimes, and he was there today. I will have to get the club schedule from him so I can avoid this track on the Tuesdays they are using it.

I just didn't have it this morning. I was to do 4x2k with 3' recoveries. Warmed up fine, 1600m in 10:20 with ave HR of 142. Did some flexibility drills and then started the workout. I figure I'm in shape for 11:40 2Ks, so I planned to do 1:10/200m and just keep it there. That was OK for the first 2K, which I did in 11:46; ave HR 160/max 166. But then it just went all to he$$ from there. My HR was low, so my coach would say I was probably a bit metabolically slow this morning. I guess that will be my excuse. I worked my tail off, and got nowhere. The last one was excruciating effort, with no yield. I totally died, or wished I could anyway. Here are my times and ave/max HR for the last 3: 11:57 (161/167), 12:01 (160/165), 12:14 (157/164).

Well, at least it's done. I have a nice endorphin warmth, even if the workout was slow. I had a feeling this might happen, because my hamstrings, etc. are still sore from the weekend. My recovery has not been too good; I guess I pushed the 20K too hard despite backing off. Hopefully Thursday's track workout will be better.


I'm actually in an OK frame of mind for 2 reasons: 1) my coach told me it might take 6 months to get back in shape, so I figure my times are going to stink for a while, and 2) how fast I am is ultimately irrelevant. If I work hard, eat well (which I did yesterday! Day 1!), and rest well (last night, not so good, but working on more sleep) then that's all I can do, and I need to be satisfied with a good effort and with treating my body well. Ultimately, that's the goal - not necessarily to win, but to stay fit and enjoy racewalking.