Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Week 9 - "Yes, Track Outdoors"

“There is no such thing as bad weather - only the wrong clothes.”
Billy Connelly

My friend Jeff sent this to the Twins and myself last week after our indoor track workout on the treadmills. Okay, Jeff we get it, but where were you?

Last night was a sleepless night. The wind howled against the house, the trees swayed and the heat kept kicking on even when it is set at 62 degrees at night. The only image that plagued me for 7 hours of supposed bedtime was the "Oval Track".

Wednesday is track day. This is the day of the week we make our way down to the AHS stadium to run our weekly intervals. Last week we had to bagged the track workout (see the 2/10/2010 blog entry) due to the wind chill knocking the temperature down to 9 degrees that morning.

As I lie in bed listening to Old Man Winter blowing, I had visions of myself absconding around the oval dressed like Randy Parker with a constant sound of nylon rubbing against my thighs.

Doubts filled my head; “How can I do this in this cold weather?” “Is 1:23’s going to be too fast? Am I going to pull something?” “How many freaking layers to I need to wear to combat this weather?”

At 4:40AM, I had enough ambiguity and got myself out of bed to face my uncertainty head on. I layered up with tri shorts, tights, Under Armour, Nike compression long sleeve, a cycling pullover, cycling coat, winter coat, a babushka and gloves. There were socks and shoes of course to finish the dress. As I stood in the closet with my arms at about a 30 degree angle from my torso, a flash of Randy running from Scut Farcus a.k.a. the Twins bolted through my mind. This actually put me in the zone thinking, “Today is not Farcus’s day, it’s Randy Time”!

I headed to ALPH-LTF to meet up with the Twins. Ann Marie had decided to abstain for the early morning track for the comforts of the warm gym later today. Evan and Steve were also supposed to make themselves present for the day’s workout, but in the end it was only the Twins and me.

With the temperatures hovering in the mid 20’s my first order of business was to build a layer of sweat by warming up the leg muscles. I jumped on one of the treadmills and ran for 15 minutes prior to our 5:45AM departure. I shed the jackets, pullover and babushka while I ran easy at a 8:34 pace to get the legs moving.

After the warm up and a good layer of sweat build up I meet the Twins in the lobby and we made our way over to the track. The parking lot at the high school had a river of ice across the entry. Not thinking it was below freezing temperatures the 3 brain surgeons ran right on the ice which sent the hearts into a Z5 heart rate!

As we approached the opening of the AHS stadium we say figures climbing up and down the visitor section bleachers. It sounded as if they we high schools girls getting in an early morning workout before school. I figured at that point if a 17 year old is up at this time and outside running wind sprints up stairs, these old bones could handle it as well.

The workout’s were:

Twins:

10 X 400M’s at 1:30 with a 1:30 R.I.

My workout:


12 X 400M’s at 1:23 with a 1:30 R.I.

As the Twins ran a scouting run to set split markers, I decided to jump into the sets since I had 2 more than them to get done this morning and with the wind and cold I did not want them to have to wait for me while I finished up.

The first 400M’s was a snap. The wind had died to nothing and I crossed the line in 1:20. I felt good, not out of breath and said, “1 down, 11 to go!” as the Twins started their first interval.

By the start of the second 400, the wind had picked up dramatically on the back stretch heading North on the loop. A steady head wind pushed you back as you continued to propel forward as the sound of the rope slapped against the flag pole constantly throughout your whole interval.


This was the scene for the rest of the intervals. We switched direction at the halfway point to even out the strides. In both directions, nearly 200M’s of each 400M was directly into the wind. Jay said at one point, “that is feels like you are running with a parachute on.” This was true, the turns and straight-aways messed with your time and your psyche.

In the end the Twins were all over the board on the 400’s: 1:24 to 1:30’s. I stayed consistent with hitting 1:21 to 1:23’s. Two fell out of the pace, the 7th 400 was a 1:24 due to a huge gust of wind the last 100M that felt as if I had stopped in my tracks and the 12th 400 which I purposely “hit it” for a 1:17.

The three of us quickly shuffled back to the gym to stretch and more importantly get warm.

The days for warmer mornings are waiting in anticipation for us. The only redeeming quality hitting these types of workouts and runs in this weather is that you constantly have to remind yourself that come “race day”, the weather does not change for your benefit.

To train in cold, rain, snow, wind, etc…only makes you more adaptable come “crunch time”. I spent 7 hours of my life agonizing about 1:05:17 of time that really was not that bad. For this, I have to thank Bob for his tenacity and would never let me live it down if I bagged this workout due to the weather.

Note: work on psyche to prepare for anything.


Now I am off to read an article sent to me by Coach Mike on swimming pretty. After having frozen snot on my face, chapped lips, wind burned face and dressed like a sherpa, "Swimming Pretty" should be left to the ones who did not run track today. I will grab a Chamomile Tea and a Lady Finger and read this article.

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