Thursday, July 13, 2006

Track Attack



You see? That's what I have to do to keep track of what I'm s'posed to be doing at the track.

Except what I was supposed to be doing at the track on Wednesday night was explained thusly by my head coach, to wit:
2 x 12:00 tempo run with 1:30 rest between the two sessions
Upon further questioning, my sub-coach (no really, that's what they're called), explained it thusly:
My interpretation: Run 12 minutes, recover, repeat. Try to make sure you go as many laps for second set of 12 minutes as the first set.
That's just too complicated. Plus I still didn't get it. Whatever. I told myself, self, just do the track workout you did a few weeks ago; 6x800. Only this time, at Bex's suggestion, instead of doing it at McMillan's "cruise" interval pace—5:19 to 5:26—I did at at his "speed workout pace" for long-distance runners: 4:55.9 to 5:09.7, with a 3:00 min recovery.

Result:

1st 800: 5:11
recovery 3:00
2nd 800: 5:15
rec 3:02
3rd 800: 5:11
rec: 3:08
4th 800: 5:12
rec: 3:05
5th 800: 4:59
rec:3:11
6th 800: 4:43
rec. walking!

Booyah!

(To add to the drama, it was raining, thundering, and lightning at the track. And I was the only one there. I take my thrills where I can get them.)

So, what else is new, you ask? I'm glad you asked. I have a new running group! The final straw was five pages of instructions from my current group describing our running route this week. For 13 miles. That would have made for a nice walk.

My new group is DCFIT. They run in pace groups and actually have one that is my speed, and is actually a running, not running/walking (not that there's anything wrong with run/walk) group. After much research and calling and e-mailing and research, I decided I'd go with DCFIT. Only to find out they're not accepting any more runners. Only to find out that the only way you can join them at this late date is through one of their charity partners. Which of course means fundraising. Except: I clicked on the first charity partner, Cure Autism Now, and viola (or is that voila?), CAN has no minimum fundraising requirement! Which of course was too good to be true. (I am not against fundraising, but raising $2+K last year for HIV/AIDS about did me and all my friends in.)

So. Where was I?

Lots of calls ensued, because it was all too good to be true. Did I have to pay twice for the MCM, cuz that's what it implied on CAN's Web site? I did not. Was it true no minimum fundraising? It was indeed. And what about DCFIT, how much to join them? Nada, since I'm fundraising for CAN (and I am fundraising for them, look-ee here).

In a world gone mad with no service and outdated Web sites and basically no one who actually runs things ever knowing anything, all the little dominoes lined up on this one, and bingo—I'll be at the Pentagon at 6 a.m. (!#%$!!!!) Saturday morning, all ready to run 10 miles with my new group.

Ain't life grand?

To celebrate, I'm taking down the Bad Steely Dan vid, and replacing it with something. Something better.

14 comments:

Triseverance said...

Fricking A Booooya, that is a great track workout. Hope the new group rocks as much as the track work.

Anonymous said...

all right!

Anonymous said...

YES!!!!!!!!! I knew DCFit would work for you, I'm in my second year and I'm so excited that you finally are going to join us.

I didn't want to say anything last week because I knew registration was closed and I didn't want you to have to fundraise just to join a running group. You'll love it, plenty of us run your pace or slower, so you will have plenty of company on the trails. And the routes are well planned and the maps are easy to read.

See you at 6am! You are definetly a yellow group runner, if I see you I'll say hello.

Christy

Anne said...

Sounds like you 'fit' in with a great group. And for a great cause. I saw on a TV commercial last night that 1 in 166 children have autism. That's a startling statistic.

MNFirefly said...

Awesome work-out.

jeanne said...

christy: I can't wait to meet you! but 6 a.m.!! gah!!! i hope i can get the keys in the ignition! i hope i can FIND the freakin' pentagon! i'd better go print the map out now, huh.

21st Century Mom said...

Excellent! And thanks for reminding me that I am fundraising, too. I guess I had better start pimping my gig.

Excellent track work, too. And good job on dumping that run 12 minutes thing. What's the point of being ON A TRACK if you are running by minutes? You can do that anywhere.

Anonymous said...

Glad you found a new running group. I hope your first run with them goes well.

David said...

Great track workout, thanks to Coach Bex.
Good trainng group switch too.
You are the Woman! All systems go.

Dori said...

I hope you enjoy your new group. Having people to run with makes the training something to look forward to.

a.maria said...

hoorah for beating the system!!! i knew it'd work out!!! can't wait to hear about your first DCFIT run!!

Anonymous said...

It is so great when things actually work out. Congratulations!

Neese said...

congrats on the new group, hope the 10 miles was a good one!

Bolder said...

i'd leave a note on my fridge (that's just figuratively speaking -- nothing goes on my fridge):

AT THE PENTAGON, NOT TO BE DISTURBED, BACK LATER.