Heading to the Track

I haven't even looked at a track all year long. I've done a few interval sessions, but these were all done on the lakefront path and they were really just kind of thrown together at the last minute. Maybe due to the lack of races that I've done lately, I've been itching to get out on the track and do something fast and measured to see where I'm at. My staple track workout has always been 5X1 Mile with a quarter mile jog recovery. It's the only track workout that I have some historical data to compare against. So I decided that would be my inaugural track workout this year.

When I got outside this morning, the humidity that has been in the air the past week or so was gone. It was sunny but cool, with a nice breeze…really perfect conditions for running fast. I did the mile jog out to the track and then did some strides on the infield. Things seemed to be feeling pretty good. When I headed out on the first mile, my legs felt really stiff for the first quarter mile or so. It's was weird. For every single mile that I did, it seemed like the burden was on my legs for the first quarter mile, I cruised for the next half mile, and then the burden was on my lungs for last quarter mile. I guess going from a 10 min/mile recovery jog down to a 5 min/mile can stress the legs a little.

Anway, the repeats went fine. The splits were 5:18, 5:15, 5:17, 5:17, & 5:18. For the most part, I was pretty close to fully recovered after each of the quarter mile jogs between each mile. I've never done this workout and been able to run all the repeats under 5:20 so this was a nice surprise. Perhaps the nicest thing was that I really wasn't killing myself to hit the times, although I don't think I could have done them much faster. It was the right pace for the workout I think.

The legs have definitely realized that something different happened this morning. They were screaming a little bit early on in the afternoon run, but once they loosened up, I made it through 7 mostly uneventful miles. The quads are a little more sore than usual, but it's a good sore. A sore that only comes with the knowledge that you worked hard this morning.