Long Strange Trip

Here is a postcard from the Drives. But the larger part of the story is the getting there. The trip starts with the directions:

Track: Usual warm up and strides.
1 x 2400 @ 75 pace. - Total 7.30 mins.
2 mile cooldown.

This workout was a trial run - do almost half the 5k at race pace and see how it goes. Kind of a midterm exam of sorts. This would be good data to have.

I dropped Tony off at 1:30 and had a window to do this run until 4:00. I knew from earlier recon that the Franklin Field track was closed due to lacrosse games. Plan B was the St. Joe's University track. I'd never been on that track before. It was very collegiate, in a bowl surrounded by big, grey, stone-brick buildings. I started on my warmup and got about a mile down before a security guard came and kicked me off. There was a scheduled soccer game about to start.

So that left plan C. I went cross-town to the Roxborough High School track. I got on to City Line Ave. and it was a parking lot. So I took it one block and turned off. Running around there at least has given me a working knowledge of the backroads, which I used to get to Rox. Once at the track, I saw it looked fine except for a 20 meter or so stretch in the back turn that still had ice on it. So much for that.

All that was left to me now was plan D. I went to the Drives and did measured quarters instead of 400s. I figure target here would be 5:09/mile pace, or quarters in 77/78 seconds. Not the same as the workout, but close enough. It was sunny and windy, so I parked on MLK, the less windy of the two Drives, and warmed up heading north into the wind so as to get the tailwind on the fast stuff. It was the least I could do for myself on an afternoon like this.

By this time it was 2:45. I had been driving around and getting myself pumped only to drive more. I really didn't want to do this workout anymore. The weather was uncomfortable and less than ideal. My mind looked for any legitimate excuse to postpone this workout, but there was none. I spent three or four minutes sitting in my now parked car just talking myself into doing the workout. And then I got out.

Did the rest of the warmup and the strides. I started on the 2400 meters-cum-1.5 miles at the 4 mile hash and heading toward the Art Museum. First thing I notice is that there is a headwind. The Drives don't have headwinds and tailwinds - the wind just swirls in the opposite of whatever direction you run. The splits will tell the story - 77; 78; 81; 79; 80; & roughly another 80. To add insult to injury I missed the hash mark for the last marker. My head wasn't in it and my heart wasn't in it. I was concentrating on my form and I was gasping for air at the end, but it never felt right. Best I could calculate, roughly a 5:15 pace. Proceeded to do the 2 mile cooldown.

GP says on days like today it is better to consider the run to be at goal effort instead of goal time. I still am not there yet, as even with the 400/quarter-mile adjustment I still felt like I fell short. This was supposed to be a time trial of sorts, at best it came out inconclusive.

I blew roughly 2 and a half hours to get in this lousy mile and a half. I suppose I can feel good about getting it in at all. I suppose I can say there are bound to be days like this. And I suppose I've already started telling the story about how I drove all around town to get my mile and a half in.

Long strange trip. All told, not including the driving, 7.5+ in 59:23.