4.21.09

A little track workout tonight. Nothing major a 2 mile warmup, form drills, 400 meter sprints with 400m recovery, then another two and a half miles with accelerations on the backstretch for the last 5 laps. So this workout was kind of wierd because it was so late. I normally workout before dinner, but tonight was kind of pushing it as I ate before. So that mean't getting to the track around 8:30, when it was nearly dark. Actually most of this workout was in the dark, and there are just a few lights they keep on nearby at the parking lots. It was still easy to see the lines so no big deal, just different. Another good reason to run later is that my race Friday will be at 9:30, so it was a good test of running later on.

Laps were going to be difficult to time because I couldn't use a stopwatch - it has no glow in the dark and I probably wouldn't have been able to find it to turn it on because it is black, so there was no point in bringing it. I just had to use my ipod and try to remember what the seconds were when I crossed the line. But anyway the first lap was 77, not anything special, but honestly I wasn't pushing my hardest, I was going fast, but still had another gear. It was also windy for 200 meters as the wind was coming at angle to the track, a good 12-13 mph or so and that took a few seconds off I'm sure. One good thing about going a tad slower was that I only needed a lap recovery before doing the next one. I really wanted to limit recovery tonight and it worked nicely. The next two laps were 77 as well, I guess it was just my night for 77's. My last lap I pushed a little harder into the wind the last 200m and got it down to 75, but nothing to write home about.

The 400's felt good and I really tried to get a feel for what the mile should be like on Friday. It will hurt, just as these did. But the funny thing is that after you take 20-30 seconds you are fine again, it's crazy how that works. I try to keep that in mind when things start hurting at the end. So I ran another mile and then did 100 meter sprints on the backstretch for the next mile. These I really worked on getting up to near top speed. I still feel a little clumsy getting up that fast and my feet just feel like they are pounding. That's to be expected from all my slow running I guess, I'll get there soon enough, plenty of time to work on speed this summer.

So I'm guessing Friday's mile is kind of going to be a toss-up judging from this workout. I'm going to run the first 800 hard and try to get with someone and run with them(assuming I'm not in the lead somehow) hold on for the third 400 and do a gradual kick the last 400. Sounds as good as a strategy as I'll get. No reason to overthink it as I'm really not in shape to run it haha. We'll see what happens, I'm sure there will at least be some high schoolers running good times so I think I'll just try to hang with them and outkick them at the end. The fortunate thing about marathon training is that for a short distance like this I'm pretty confident my kick will be there at the end, so not to worried about that. It's exciting just thinking about it, reminds me of high school glory days. Only, then I had friends yelling out "Ric Flair" at the end so I could yell "Woooo" and kick it home. I really didn't like Ric Flair, but I liked abandoning all sanity and sprinting no matter how much it hurt. Fun times, in shape times.

8:28pm. track. 54º 40%H 13mph wind from WNW (cool)
4x400 @77, 77, 77, 75 w/400m recovery
4x100m accels
50:18(7.75) fasttwitch 54
AHR165?/MHR185