Week 5 -"Wednesday is Speed Day"

My mother who is an avid reader of the blog provided me some insight last night. No matter how old you get, your mom is still your mom.

Preacher Peter Gomes says about how one should handle adversity in life, "Get used to it, get over it, and get on with it."

Therefore, my mom is basically, telling me to “Suck it up”. Thanks mom.

Wednesday brought the track in focus. With the ailments and injuries sustained over the last week, track was going to be a challenge. I received an email from Ann Marie yesterday evening on hitting the track. Now, Ann Marie has had a nasty cold for almost a week and I knew she had to knock out 5-1 milers as part of her speed work. A few moments later, I got an email from Bob about track as well. The last week has been tough for him and his family on the death of his brother-n-law who was only 39. Two athletes that have had to deal with adversity the past week and they were planning the track workout. With my aches and pains that seemed very minor in the grand scheme of things, it was time to push them aside and get on with it.

I headed upstairs quite early to hit the roller to massage the hamstring and groin. I iced the areas after the roller and placed the heating pad on the lower back to relax the muscles and ease the pain of the sciatica. Around 9:15PM it was lights out.

The clock alarm went off and it was game time. I meticulously followed my established routine and headed out the door.

Arriving at LTF I prepared for the speed workout by Ace bandaging the hammie and groin areas. I met Bob, Ann Marie and Susan L. in the lobby and we were off.

Ann Marie and Susan’s workout menu consisted of:
5 X 1 mile repeats with 3 minutes of R. I. AM @ 6:40’s & Susan @ 6:55’s.

Bob, well, Bob is floating now. With missing the 10K race due to the death he is in need of a goal. Bob was running 400’s and though he is not set on a plan right now he helped me on 2 portions of my 1600’s by running 800’s with me. This was a huge help in keeping pace. It is great to have friends who know when you are in need and come to your rescue to help you achieve your set goals.

This leads into me. I had a mere 3 X 1600M’s with a 400M R.I. The pace was set at 5:57’s.

When we arrived at the track on a blistering morning of 40 degrees, we noticed Stacy & Shane knocking out 1 milers as well. They were on their second when we arrived. We took the scouting trip around to mark off the 200M splits and then we each started out workout.

The first 1600M was at 5:57 exact. It was a struggle and I felt the pull in the muscles but kept the form and dug deep to achieve the time. The wind started to pick up on the back stretch of the track half way through the 1600 and I knew it was to be a struggle to hit the mark on the last 2 1600’s.

At the rest I talked to Stacy about her times on her milers. She was all over the board on her pace and times. Stacy stated after the 3rd miler she was done. I said to her that with being all over the board in time this eats up energy and makes it tougher to hold pace. I gave her some advice to look at 200M splits on the miler in order to hold the pace needed. She tried this along with Shane on the 4th and 5th miler and they were close to the time she had set to run the milers in.

For me, I held the split times on the 200M’s but 6th & 7th 200 were off the mark which slowed me to 6:00 evens on the second 1600. On my last 1600 Bob said he would pick me up after 800 and pace me in for the final 800. After hitting the 800 on queue Bob nestled in on my side at the 800 meter mark. We hit the first turn passing Susan and I asked Bob to take the inside and lead me around. We were constant on the splits and at the 1200M mark, Bob said, “pick it up”. We both increased speed and took the final curve hard. Coming off the curve I pulled to the right of Bob and we were almost neck in neck, I turned it on and slightly move in front of Bob, but like a bullet out of a gun Bob kicked it and smoked me on the last 15 meters. Thus the nickname of “The Bullet” which he has held since Jeff and I named him.

Bob and I headed back after the workout leaving Ann Marie and Susan to finish their milers. I don’t like leaving friends on the track especially when we came together, but their agenda’s for the day are different than Bob and my day and we need to head back to start it.

With the amount of Marathon training I have had I would think it would “Get use to it” by now. But every season brings new adversities that challenge the psyche and body. It is a lot easier to “Get over it” when you have friends like Bob, Ann Marie and Susan to help you push through it, oh, and a mom who supports her crazy son’s antics.