My head hit the pillow at 11:20PM last night. 1 hour 20 minutes later than normal for me.
The day I had was lined with activities, meeting and food. Wednesday was one of the days, though I am groggy and a little out of step was all-in-all a good day.
It all started with the typical schedule for a Wednesday, track. Bob was in Florida, Jay is in Utah on this day, but the rest of the running clan were waiting in the lobby to jog down to the track. It has been known that during this training session the track is my least favorite workout. I despise it actually. I have no desire or motivation for it. I continue to motivate myself for the tempo runs and long runs but if it were not for the following runners out there, I would bag it: Rebecca, Stacey, Ann Marie, Amy, Shane, Ken, Darin, Ken B, Jay and Bob. Wren and Ed decided to show up for a speed session as well. It was good to see Wren and “check out” her running form. Strong as always.
The track was a little congested with all of these runners, which is not a complaint at all. The environment that was set on the Oval was good for me. Fast runners, motivated runners and me.
My workout was 3 X 1600 meters at 6:12’s. The first 1600 was timed at 6:10. The second at 6:12 and the third…6:12. I could say it was easy, but from above you get the jest.
After each 1600 the R.I. was 1 minute. During that one minute the air was thick, stale and heavy. No coolness, no wind, nothing, just humidity and dampness. I took 2 minutes just to catch my breath.
After I was done, Rebecca finished her set which mirrored mine. We watched as the rest of the group ran and ran and ran. When they hit the line everyone had the same look of pain and anguish on their faces. Rebecca and I chuckled and comment on why do we do this to our bodies…Do I need to answer? One runner that is very impressive on the track is Amy. Amy continues to show consistency in her pace, her form and being as efficient as possible. Modeling after her anyone would become a better runner.
Rebecca and I also discussed her training, though it is going well for Chicago, she is treating the long runs in a negative way. She wants them over with. To accomplish this Rebecca is increaing her pace to finish quicker. We discussed that this process is counterproductive. We can run the 20 miles, but it pacing yourself over the last 6.2 of a marathon where it counts. More runners fail within that last 10K of the race I think than anywhere else on a course.
I will follow up with her on Friday to make sure she remembers, pace.
After the track, we all headed our separate ways by car or by foot back to LTF. I hope Wren and Ed decide to hit the track with us more. It is good for the psyche to run with other runners who are faster and even slower than yourself. 6 days, 19.5 hours until I have to torture myself again.
The day was busy. With the family out of town, I have the responsibility of caring for the dog. This means daily treks home at around lunch to let her out and then head back. I eat lunch while she is doing her stuff in the yard and then I head back to the office.
In the late afternoon, I had a conference call that was to last 1.5 hours from 1:00PM to 2:30PM. I thought this was aggressive after reviewing the schedule and items up for discussion. Needless to say at 4:34PM, I had to cut the meeting off and suggest we pick up the rest at another time. 3.5 hours was enough for any human to endure a conference call. However, I have to say I would rather do that then run around a Oval leading nowhere 4 times!
The next portion of my day was the Reality Ride. This is where I had some real tangible motivation. Not only was I riding with a group of “super fast” riders, but after the ride Reality was sponsoring an Italian Dinner for everyone hosted by Pinarello, an Italian bike manufacturer that Reality has teamed up with. The first thing that motivated me getting back to the “super fast riders” was the group I rode with. I left Reality at 5:30PM on the wheels of Ann Marie, Amy, Ken, Randy, Susan and Yenke’. Thought out the ride I kept hearing, “this is a recovery ride” as the group continued to pull ahead of me until they were out of sight. Now, it is not that I could not crank up the speed and jack my heart rate up to hang with them. I wanted this to be an EZ ride. The temperature was 96 degrees. I ran track this morning and have an 18 mile run on Saturday and a 63 mile bike on Sunday. The last thing I was looking for was a crank fest.
I let them go and soon enough caught up with them. This group of riders (especially the women) set that blinding pace. During the back end of the ride heading down a long slight grade I hit something in the road going almost 30 miles and hour and blew out my tire. I was thankful that the group waited for me as I would have waited for anyone of them any day and on any ride.
We completed another sweat pouring ride and headed to Reality’s bike shop for some food. A lot of riders and their families showed up for the dinner. The food awesome. The beer was ice cold and the conversation was continuous. I hung out with a number of friends and riders I have rode with on the B rides. We talked and laughed until I realized the time had slipped away as Todd, the owner, returned after a beer run. 9:10PM. Late for me. I started to say my good-byes to a number of people ending with Ann Marie. We chatted for a few minutes. Got our schedule together set for Friday’s swim and I took off for home.
I have been training a lot with Ann Marie lately in the swim, bike and ride. She continues to amaze me and the rest of us with her dedication and speed. Strong biker (I can’t keep up with her. Yes, I know I need a more aggressive cassette!) and a super fast runner. I feed off her energy to keep me motivated and also it allows me to keep my eye on her so I know exactly how fast she is becoming! I do the same with my Sarah on her rides. Sarah continues to progress forward on the bike sticking to her “plan”. I am learning on Sarah’s plan from Ken that a workout on the bike does not mean a ”crank fest”. Under the controlled plan, you build speed and strength without going all out all the time. I applied this on the ride last night as well. The heat was a factor, but I was not spent.
I left Reality and call Sarah from the road up in Boston. She had called the house and got no answer assuming that I was already asleep. She knows me too well. Therefore, it was a surprise when I told her that I was on my way home at 9:40PM from Reality. I told her about the ride, the dinner, who I talked to and I also told her I wish she was there with me.
Turning into the driveway, we said out goodnights as I headed into the house to prep for the next day. I had burned off the dinner from the ride so I grabbed a snack, made my lunch, coffee, fed the dog and then headed up to do my stuff for Thursday.
The head hit the pillow after coming down from the day as I set the alarm for 6AM. Rest day after a good day was the order of business for tomorrow.
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