Rock Me

The more I've been tapering, the bigger my appetite has been getting. Suffice to say I had an awesome Thanksgiving.

Had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat with the family at my sister's in the DC area. Headed out this morning to the track that's a few blocks from her house. The purpose of today's workout was to "rev the engine," one of the few things I learned from my short-lived coaching experience with Greg McMillan. The idea here is that during the taper you take the edge off of a hard workout so that you push yourself but don't take it to the limit. You make sure the motor is well-tuned while avoiding needless stress and strain.

This is fun training. Like last week's track workout, there is no pressure. But where in last week's workout there was no pressure because I ran over my head, today I would revel in going fast without hardly trying. If I do it right, it should give me a feeling of being on top of my game.

Sunny, mild day out. On the agenda were five 1000 meter repeats (w/ 400 meter recoveries), target time was 3:20 per rep. I did the reps with the iPod on, each rep done to a song that makes me fly.

Results were:

Rep 1: 3:16 - "The Bleeding Heart Show" (New Pornographers)
Rep 2: 3:16 - "Tumbling Dice" (Johnny Copeland)
Rep 3: 3:17 - "Hurt" (Johnny Cash)
Rep 4: 3:17 - "Under the Wire" (Carbon Leaf)
Rep 5: 3:16 - "Further on Up the Road" (Bruce Springsteen)

5 x 1000. 5k on the installment plan in 16:22. It was easy. I could have done 5 more. Hell, I could have done 50 more. My biggest problem is that I couldn't slow them down. But I ran them consistently fast. This was fun. Broke a good sweat in November. There's a fever in the funkhouse now.

Total of 7 miles in 48:21.

Rock me baby like a wagon wheel;
Rock me baby any way you feel;
Oh baby rock me.