Track Night - Rawr!

As my friends know, Track Night is my least favorite workout of the week. It is usually the hardest and most confusing, and frankly, it is in the dark at an unlit high school track.

This was a night of struggling and successes. It was my favorite Track Night so far, yet the hardest.

1:) I have just been getting over a flu and had a horrid headache all day. A coworker gave me Excedrin Migraine at 4pm. My heart was racing at 5:15pm and I showed my coworker that my resting rate at my desk was 102! It worried me going out to track running like that.

2:) I noticed quite a few people missing tonight. In fact, I could be wrong, but I think there was only two of us from the 5K group there - Me and the guy I call 'dark shirt man'. He and 'light shirt man' are both medium/large middle aged runners who appear to be just starting out. I wanted to cheer Dark Shirt Man on all night. He wasn't running a lot, but he NEVER stopped moving!!!! I totally respect him. If he is there next week, I am going to introduce myself. I wonder if he sees me as something like 'Old Turtle Lady' or 'The Slogger'? Again - TOTAL respect for him. He was working hard all night. I hope he doesn't quit.

3:) We were told to run two easy laps to warm up. Excuse me? That isn't a warm up! That is a workout for us overweight newbies. She said to go ahead and race walk if I wanted so I did. Surprised myself to find I was walking the half mile at an average pace of 12:45. I was walking a half mile at a pace that is faster than some of my recent post-injury runs!!!

4:) This is the workout we (in the 5K group) had tonight as the half and full marathon groups sprinted by. I am posting my stats so I can look back at these in 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12, weeks and 16 weeks of this program -

• Run one mile at 80%: I did this in 11:45! YAY ME! Last week I did it at 13:30 and I am in the 13 minute pace group on Saturdays. Last night I was using my heart rate as my guide the whole way. I kept my eye glued to it and my goal was to stay at or below 172. I mostly succeeded excepting only the very first half of the very first lap when I took off chasing a girl at a pace of 7:54!!! What was I thinking? 

• Run 400 at 80% - repeat 3x (30 second rests) : My averaged moving time on these was 11:46!! Talk about consistent. I don't know how that happened. I really don't. I sure felt like I was running on empty that last 400 but I guess it all worked out well. I really worked hard tonight. 

• Run 100 meters at full speed - rest 30 seconds - Run 100 easy back - #1:  This was wild!! The coach told me to run as fast as I can. Sprint! Okay. Sure. Why not? WEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
• So what was my best pace in this? 5:57! 
• My average including the slog back was 8:04). 
• My Heart Rate jumped all the way up to 178bpm in just 31 seconds. Luckily it dropped very quickly afterwards.

• Run 100 meters at full speed - rest 30 seconds - Run 100 easy back - #2: I felt like a junior high kid running through the fields again. Sprinting is magical. I felt like a race horse. Then at maybe 75 meters I started feeling muscle pulls in my quads and just before reaching the 100 yard mark I started to feel my ears ringing and a very slight dizzy fog so I backed off immediately. 
• My best pace was even faster at 5:52! 
• Run cadence hit 93! 
• But my heart rate hit 183. I have hit 191 in the last five months, but I make myself stay at 180 or below whenever possible. I figured ringing ears at 183 is as good a reason as any to slow it down. Why risk it? 
• My overall average pace including the slog back was 9:06. That's okay. 

WEIGHT: 167.8

TEMP: 42 degrees and dry

I worked very hard. I felt like every step of the first mile and a half was a battle, excepting when I zoned out and just admired the scattered clouds lit by city lights, against the night sky. Those moments were the easy ones. The sweet spots. I need to learn to find more of those moments.  

Last night I had a little socializing during the stretching. Mostly listening as the girls near me all seemed to know each other already. It turned out one of the strong/fit girls lives in my neighborhood and runs the same hill and bridge I enjoy. She said either will be great for my Friday Strength work.

GOALS: Survive next Wednesday night which looks even more wild! We are adding half a mile. Taking away several breaks, increasing intensity and then closing with a bang by running 400 meters at 100%. Yikes!

Let's do it!