Need for Speed

Hey there, ho there.

It is 4 pm and I have spinach tongue (but I love it and how Popeye-ish your arms look!) and am a sticky/post run/unshowered mess. Now that you have the visual...

Today was my track workout! I was strangely looking forward to this and didn't feel any anxiety or stress beforehand. (Not that I usually do, but you know, I usually do. Actually, I feel the same average stress level on most runs, even the super easy ones. The average stress level is relatively low as compared to things like...considering Plan-B, waiting to hear back on a job interview, being tailed by a man that is dressed like and looks like Mephistopheles while running or deciding whether that tofu is really over its use-by date. You've all been there I'm sure. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I'm typically a mess, a hot mess [or a tranny], so I was happy to realize that this week I wasn't!)

I had serious problems with my Garmin but they were mostly user generated. I simply didn't think about the programming beforehand which resulted in many resets and bad data-gathering. One interesting thing is that Garmin thought my miles were shorter than the track did. I still timed my mile intervals to the track, not the Garmin. It was only a 0.2 mile difference, but that meant about an 8 second increase in the interval which is clearly significant.

I did manage to capture the data that I needed - the MILE INTERVALS. My workout was as follows:

• one mile warmup
• drills
• the actual workout
• one mile cooldown

The actual workout was this:

• one mile between 7:00-7:10
• 5 minutes rest
• repeat two more times

My results:

• Mile 1 = 7:02 (185 bpm)
  
• Mile 2 = 7:00 (185 bpm)
  
• Mile 3 = 6:52 (185 bpm)
  

How do you like the consistency on the HR? Wow. I really didn't know what to expect of my performance beforehand, so I just tried my best to stick with a consistent pace that targeted my goal time. Once I got into the groove it felt better. The first mile kinda sucked, but I definitely felt my limbs loosen and my stride lengthen and become easier on the 2nd mile. The third mile I tried to do it basically as balls out as possible. It wasn't as much of a mind fuck that it usually is which shows that I'm becoming more comfortable on the track. (Which is awesome!)

My last mile I had an audience - the ambulance. For some reason there is ALWAYS an ambulance hanging around within a block of the track, most likely because of the proximity to the hospital there. This time they decided to park in a position where they could watch the show. It made me feel a little bit safer, but also run faster because they were hot. Hot in that EMT sort of way. The back turn of each 400, there they were - watching. It made me run faster; I mean, who doesn't run faster with an audience of hot men?

This was the 2nd best EMT experience of my life. 2nd to the time that these guys below decided to advertise their phone number to my then co-worker/friend Liz and I while driving from Berkeley to Walnut Creek on highway 24 (fall 2006).


Feel free to give these bad boys a call.

I digress.

I gave myself the 5 minutes in between the intervals to slow down and I noticed that my HR typically dropped to about 120 bpm before I was ready to start the next mile.

Yes, the miles felt hard, but I know if I kept up the speedwork I could do them faster. Knowing this makes me not want to stop now, or after my race. I haven't had this much growth physically/athletically in a really long time and I'm thriving off of it. I am definitely going to keep up with speedwork after my race.

For the record, the pre-workout food and water consumption was as follows:

• coffee (approx 2 cups)
• water (maybe 20-24 oz)
• bagel, toasted, one half butter the other cream cheese
• vanilla yogurt

This felt like a good combo of food. I wasn't full in the stomach when I ran (my last item was consumed a couple of hours before the run), and I only had limited gagging occur. Oh! I also made marine snow TWICE before my run, so I felt nice and "clean."

***

I couldn't let this picture go either. Another pose in my Cake-sponsored t-shirt. This time in the tights that someone attempted to buy me so my ass would never sag again. Alas, they were too tight for me, espesh in the calf-age, so had to be returned. Thank god for that Nike employee pass.


Next big day is my 14-miler this Sunday, which I'm doing with my Coach! I am really looking forward to running with him, as we haven't done this yet.

Sick of myself. Good night.