Day Thirty Four - "Off Season"

“It is better to reenter hell and become an angel, than to remain in heaven and become a demon.”
Victor Hugo

My oldest daughter watched a movie on Friday night with demons; let us just say we have not been getting any sleep the last couple of nights…

I believe demons have taken over my alarm the last two nights as well. This morning the alarm went off at 5:00AM, but the volume was off. My internal clock woke me at 5:07AM. Plenty of time for me to get ready and head off to LTF.

As I let the dog out for her morning clearing of the backyard of animals and birds the moon’s brightness illuminating the deck on the back of the house. I stood outside for a brief moment to gauge the temperature for today’s track workout. The air was clear and crisp, but not the sub temperatures that would require winter running garb. I decided on layers on top and shorts as the dog ran up the stairs and darted into the warmth of the house.

The ride to the familiar sight Monday through Friday was melancholy. With lack of sleep, the brain and body barely had enough energy to muster up the drive through the moon reflected streets of the burbs.

I reached my destination and headed to the locker room. Unpacked the necessities of the day and carted my tired body upstairs to run a mile or so prior to heading off to the ALPHA HS track. I saw Michele hitting the treadmill a couple of rows away from the stairs. She looked though she had been running a while when I approached. Michele had a layer of sweat going and her stride indicated that she was into a groove. I jumped on the mill next to her to warm up. She had ear buds in listening to music so I decided to smile and just focus on my warm-up. After a half mile, Chris popped on the mill on the other side of me and we said our good mornings and discussed the workout that was going to commence in the next 10 minutes. The conversation died after the small talk as we both looked at the intense look on Michele’s face as she continued to plot along on the treadmill to nowhere. We both laughed a little getting her attention and she wondered what we had been laughing at. We proceeded to tell Michele that the face she was making while she ran. As she continued to run, Chris and I could see that she was concentrating on not making the face, but to no avail. We chuckled again as we finished the warm up, said good-bye to Michele, and headed to the rendezvous’ point to meet Bob and Jeff.
Bob and Jeff were in the lobby waiting and the four of us headed out for the track in a single file out the door into the refreshing morning towards the track.

The moon continued to shine brightly as we ran the .9 miles to the oval circle. Upon hitting the gate, we preceded our ritual run around to clear the track of debris. The track’s surface was alive with the moon’s rays that gave us a clear vision of the full oval. The white lines, numbers and bleachers were visible from all points of the stadium.

Each of us had their own workout to accomplish:

Chris was running 5 X 1000M’s @ 4:01’s
Jeff was running different sets of intervals
Bob was running his 5-mile tempo run. (He wanted points to measure to control his pace)
I was running 4 X 1000M’s @ 3:35’s.

We each took off at our own speeds and passed each other at different intervals on the track for the next 40 minutes of the workout. I kept to myself during this run and decided not to nag anyone on pace this day. I figured at this stage they know what to do, so they don’t need me bugging them continually that their paces are too fast.

The air before the dawn of the sun started to dip and the stadium became a still, cool arena for running as we continued to plot the course around the oval. My hands after each 1000M were numb from the cold so I placed them in a very warm place on my body to warm up as I did a recovery 400M run before the next set.

I ended the set at 3:38, 3:35, 3:35 and yes, too fast, 3:30. The last 400M cool down Bob went floating by me and I thought I would catch up to him and run the remaining ¾ mile left of his 5 miles with him. I started to increase my pace and as I continued to accelerate, I felt the pace was dipping below 7:30’s. His tempo was to be at 7:29’s and I knew from the speed I was increasing too I was at or around 7:15’s. Too fast for him and me. I decelerated to an 8-minute mile for a cool down thinking he did not need me being the nag on his last few repeats of the oval.
We all finished up within 5 minutes of each other and headed back to LTF. Chris and I talked bikes the outrageous prices and whether to buy used or new. This is a recapitulating conversation Chris and I will have over the winter. Bikes are very expensive and there is no justification for the purchase of a $3000-$4000 bike. Which is the average for a descent road or tri bike. It is sick to think that a piece a metal or carbon with no motor cost that much.
The four of us stretched and then went our separate ways to start our days. I was off to Marietta for some fieldwork that ends tomorrow.

I emailed Ann Marie during this entry and she ran her 20 miles at the Columns today. She and Susan averaged 8:39/mile, which is too fast, what else. They were to hit 14 seconds slower than this and I have already “nagged” Ann Marie by threatening to swim in her lane in the morning. I figured if she can go this fast on the run, I will have her shave 14 seconds off her swim intervals. Right? I have a feeling I will be ousted out of the lane in the morning.

Off to make the pre 20-mile dinner for Sarah so she may have the energy to ward off the 20 mile demons in the morning.