I had a great, hard workout on Tuesday that was a brand new one to me. Many of my workouts that I've done are similar iterations of each other. Mile repeats, or 800s or progression runs: I have been doing them all since 2010, and only the times have changed. It's rare these days to have a brand new one, but I got one sent to me that I was so anxious to try out:
20 x 400m with 100m jog in between each, starting at 99 seconds and work down to 94 seconds, knocking off 1-2 seconds per "mile" (4 x 400). So, in a way, it was like a 5 x 1 mile progression run, just broken up differently. I think the most 400s I had ever done was 10, and here we go doubling that and picking up the pace. I was anxious: both excited and nervous for this mighty different workout. There was a sense of duality about the whole thing: both nervous and excited. It looked both long and short (after all, each interval would be done in under 100 seconds). The recovery was the shortest, but the number of intervals was the greatest. But I averaged 1:35 for them (6:20 pace) and even got the last one in 88 seconds!
It overall was a success. Standing at the start, it seemed daunting. And there were moments throughout, lap 6, 12, 17, for example, when it just felt arduous. I was constantly toeing off and it was literally flying by. My mind shut off the rest of the world, the rest of my day, the things to be done. It was just e and the track. In the field, the women's lacrosse team was practice, and occasionally my eye wandered over to them. And in the baseball field behind me, the men's team had a baseball game, and so sometimes my ears picked up on the cheers or the crack of the bat. It was a great workout, but definitely not an easy one right before a race. I also was helping my boyfriend move across town and got in some good lifting in the days leading up to it, and that wiped me out a bit.
I had a nightmare the night before the race that I missed the start of the race and had to just do it as a time trial all alone. But was very relieved to wake up and just have it be a dream. I did my warmup from my house and got there with plenty of time to spare.
Last year, I was the fifth woman, and as a result, I figured I could get up to the front this time. No Olympians or trials qualifiers. Just a couple of other fast looking women. One woman told me, "You look serious," and then proceeded to move a few rows back. When the gun went off, I tried to take off as fast as I could, but it was hard to get the legs moving. I saw a few girls go out way in front, but a couple who were more in reach. I came through the first mile in 6:25, which was a little slower than I had hoped. I started to pick things up a bit...but things were pretty spread out, so it felt almost more like a solo run with a few scattered guys around me. I couldn't even see the women in front of me. Mile 2 was 6:17, so I was definitely picking things up and working my way through it. Last year, I felt so light and easy doing it. Not this time, but I was making progress, and mile 3, 6:11, the finish line was in sight. I did my best to finish strong, and I did in 19:50 flat.
26/2280 overall
4th woman
So while this was not a PR (off by 30 seconds), I was really pleased with the effort. This was not my goal race, but now I am getting to the point where I am running sub 20 in the 5k with some degree of consistency. I am learning to push at the end when it is uncomfortable, and I look forward to using this speed in my April races!
(These pictures are from my last race, the St. Patrick's Day 8k, but on the same course. Weather was much sunnier that day!)
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| Making a run on the Capitol! |
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