Just getting the recent workouts in the book before I forget.
Saturday was a 7+ mile jaunt with Andre, Pat, Nelson and new boy John (but sometime Gazelle). Andre said his diaphragm was hurting (uh, you’ll have to ask him) so we took it slower than usual, maybe 8:00/mile. Coming up on the last 2 miles I told John I was going to pick it up, and did those 2 at about a 7:00/mile pace I would guess. some canadaian guy latched on to us and ran with us, though I brought it home a little harder for the last half-mile or so, with John saying “you kicked my ass”.
Sunday I did an hour bike ride. Wanted to go longer, but life got in the way. I love riding my bike.
Monday was the weekly 6 a.m. popgun run with most of the usual suspects, 9 in all, including Erine. Fletcher cooked up a course with 3 options (5mi, 7mi, 7mi w/hills). Going in I wasn’t sure what I was going to do and the 5 mile option looked more and more appealing on the first part of the run. I don’t know what it was (lack of sleep maybe), but I just did not want to be out there. My mind was not right, I struggled to keep the easy pace and I just hung quietly at the back of the pack, generally displeased. When it came time to decide which path to take, the 5 miler or the 7 miler with hills, I really wanted to take the 5 mile route and just go straight home, but I decided to gut out the longer course. I’m glad I did. Once I made the mental transition to take on the rest of the run, my heart was in it and so of course was my body. I felt lively for the remainder of the run, staying with Fletcher for most of the route. Whatever his times were, I ran the same, though he left me on the last mile or so, finishing 15 or 20 seconds ahead of me. But after starting the morning so lamely, I was quite pleased to finish so strongly. Barton Springs topped off the morning perfectly.
Today was the first day of school for Elijah, so I skipped the morning workout and attended the afternoon inferno for their rendition of Meridan. I didn’t feel fast, but I felt fairly strong, with times of 4.06, 4.13, 4.16, 4.17. I’m not sure, but I think the last time I did Meridan I started at 4.15 and finished at 4.02 or something. But today the heat just sapped me as I obviously got slower. It’s tough to do negative splits in the heat. Another thing that bothered me was running solo. In the morning we’re always in a little pod, assigned by Gilbert, but this afternoon Gilbert just said, “ok, everyone go”, and everyone went. No great insight, but I really prefer running with a group. After the repeats we did 5 forward sprints up and 3 up backwards. By this point I was feeling a little lightheaded between sprints. I’d feel fine while running, but as soon as I stopped I felt like I might topple over. But interestingly, after I ran back to RunTex Lake Austin, I didn’t feel drained or tired or anything and almost went for a run on the trail. It was almost as though I felt the workout wasn’t hard enough. I wonder if the heat caused me to conserve energy, while still draining me, if that makes sense. Oh well, back to the morning on Thursday.
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