Revival

I am going to summarize two workouts today. I haven't blogged since Sunday. Monday I had an off day and thus nothing to write about, yesterday I had plenty to write about but no time to do so. I still don't really have time today, but will write a quick update anyway.

Yesterdays track workout was supposed to go like this:

6 X 800 – Run them in this fashion: 200 jog in 1:45 nice n’ easy between repeats.

Set 1: 40/35/40/35 = 2.30. (i.e Change pace per 200).
Set 2: 75-75 even paced = 2.30.
Set 3 40/35/40/35 = 2.30. (i.e Change pace per 200).
Set 4 75-75 even paced = 2.30.
Set 5 40/35/40/35 = 2.30. (i.e Change pace per 200).
Set 6 75-75 even paced = 2.30.

With these marching orders I went down to Franklin Field in the early afternoon. My legs did not feel good but I know that is not a good predictor of how my workout would go. I knew that dropping the speed to a 35 sec. 200m would be tough. For some reason I also thought the recovery time was 1:25 instead of 1:45, so I rushed the recoveries a bit. The temps were in the 40s and the wind was calm, so I knew in advance that I could, for once, not use the conditions as an excuse.

Here are the times, when I give numbers in parentheses they are either 200 or 400 meter splits, as I remember them.

2:29 (37; 38; 39; 35)
2:31 (75; 76) one second over was more pacing than tiredness
2:36 (41; 35; 44; 36) after the first 400 I was totally disoriented as to pace and, huffing and puffing, slowed down too much
2:34 (47; 47) tiredness and demoralization set in. I still got 2 more to go?
2:38 (40; 36; 43; 39) I have reached my limit and then some
2:37 (79; 78) I wanted to go faster than rep #5 just to maintain some self respect, and got a little kick at the end.

A disappointing workout in that I felt like I have reached a ceiling, that this is as fast as I can go. I don't know if this is true or not, but it had me thinking of my mortality. If not at this point, at some point there is a limit as to how fast I'm going to be able to push things. My times will not go down forever. Also, since 5k is the shortest distance I run, its also the one I do fastest. So if the fastest I can go is, say, a five minute mile, then I have a ceiling on all my other distances accordingly. I don't want to make too much of all this except to say that after yesterdays workout I became painfully aware of myself as a finite creature.

Then again, if I had given myself those extra 20 seconds recovery, maybe the sky would still be the limit. Doubt it. My legs also felt really sore and stiff for the rest of the day. To the point where I did something that is very rare for me in that I took the elevator to and from my 4th floor office. All told, I covered about 9 miles and the running clock showed 73:45.

This morning was a good rebound, a revival of sorts. The weather, if not mild, was at worst seasonably cold and there was a pretty sunrise when I hit the streets at 6 am. This portends of spring, rebirth, and all those kinds of metaphors which are not here yet, but are just around the corner. My legs experienced a revival as well, as there was a definite spring in their step. Did a long Tinicum loop, which always gets me starting out fast to get the nondescript front five out of the way so I can enjoy the back 5 and a half that go through the wildlife refuge. I was worried about muddy conditions, and it turned out that the trail was indeed wet, but the ground froze overnight to create a springy surface not unlike a track. In addition to the deer, hawks and other usual wildlife, at one point I rounded a bend and about 25 meters in front of me was a red fox, who then quickly scampered away. Beautiful sight.

I'd see another red fox at the end of my run.

I needed this run after yesterday's. The subsequent feelings of revival have stayed with me all day. 10.5 miles in 80:43, and the pace felt faster than that.