Day Seventy Five - "The Solo Workout"

Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have nature and that is much better.

Juha Vaatainen

As the excitement of the weekend of Marathon races wears off life starts to takeover again as we all settle back into our normal routines.

Last night we went to Grace’s chorus show at Lambert High School. The middle school chorus puts on a good Holiday show each year and this event was no exception. The kids sang with excitement and enthusiasm to a pack auditorium of parents, siblings and grandparents.

We finished the night with some math word problems that was the last ruminants of homework for the evening and everyone was in bed by 9PM. The girls are counting the days down to Christmas break which will mark the half way point for the 2009-2010 school year.

The alarm sounded at 4:55AM this morning. I have changed my routine around this week to break up some monotony I have had and scheduled a track workout on a swim day. With the upcoming 5K race on Saturday to establish my paces for Boston training I opted for the change to rest the legs on Friday.

The weather outside was misty and humid for a mid-December morning. The environment must be taking note of Al Gore’s speech in Copenhagen where he vehemently stated that the Polar Ice Caps would be completely “ice-free” in 5-7 years. This was later refuted by Dr. Maslowski stating he would never be that direct with his figures and that Al Gore’s statement was unfounded. I guess the warm pocket over Suwanee/Alpharetta didn’t get the memo on another false statement about Global Warming.

The legs were stiff this morning so I spent an additional 10 minutes on the treadmill to loosen the them up and get the cobwebs out. After the warm-up I headed to the track solo. Since the summer I have had the company of Bob, Jay, Ann Marie, Susan, Michelle and Jeff out at the local track. It has been a motivating factor during Half Ironman training when the legs are fried from grinding it out on the bike and the fast runs we had done. The chats up and down Webb Bridge were silenced this morning by the sound of my shoes making contact with the wet sidewalks.

Arriving at the track I peeled off a few layers to keep cool as the air was thick and humid. I made the “once-around” the track to clear debris and to mark the 200M point.

The workout was: 6 X 400M’s. The plan was to go by feel and not split the 200M times. I took off on the first 400M in the damp, dark morning with no music attached to my ears. I usually wear headphones on solo runs but during race week I want to feel and hear my running to get a sense of how I feel. Rounding the first bend of the 400M the legs felt stiff even after the warm-up and run down to the track. I focused on form and propelled myself on the back stretch as I made the second turn. At the ending of the turn and into the home stretch, I kicked the legs higher and leaned forward as I glided in at 0:01:17. Right on the mark.

The next 5-400M’s was about form and pushing on the last 100M. The times for the next 5-400M’s were #2) 0:01:18, #3) 0:01:17, #4) 0:01:17, #5) 0:01:18, #6) 0:01:17. I would of have wanted the same time on all 6, but 1 second off on a few, I’ll take it.

I headed back to LTF were I spend the next 25 minutes stretching. This is one routine that I broke that needs to be incorporated back into my training. I have let a lot of stretch slide over the last 70 days and I am focusing on increasing my flexibility through stretching and yoga.

On the way to the lockers I ran into Michelle. She told me that everyone got out of the pool early because the PH balance was off and it was causing the swimmers to cough.

We chatted a few minutes and I noticed that she looked good for running a marathon only a few days ago. However, youthfulness can have that affect on a person, not like me where it takes a week or two to even to start to bounce back.

I saw Jeff in the locker room as he was leaving. He informed me of the same thing on the condition of the pool and that the Aquatic’s Director was on vacation this week. These two things tend to go hand-in-hand, the AD out and the pool goes to heck.

The rest of the week is “switched up” with runs and swims. This week will be a solo week in the pool and on the roads. I need to use to companionless runs over the next 16 weeks, but I have been there once and can do it again. It is better than being on the sidelines or in the stands. I will have my surroundings and occasional tune to keep me company.