Full of Speed

Dare I say it was a little chilly this morning when I headed out the door at 5:30am for my Gazelle workout? It wasn't so much cold as there was no humidity in the air. It was a fabulous crisp morning. I don't normally dread these workouts, but today was a little different because it was my first "speed" workout in about two months. We were doing mile repeats at Zilker Park. Between tapering for Boston and tri training, I really hadn't done any speedwork. I was a little afraid to find out just how much speed I had lost in the interest of gaining more endurance for the longer races.

We started at Runtex and warmed up 1.6 miles to Zilker Park. After out drill set (skips, shuffle, high kness, butt kicks, strides, etc), we gathered so that Coach G could break us into different speed groups for the Mile Repeats. These mile repeats aren't like doing them on the flat track. It's a one mile loop with inclines, declines and turns. There's even a pretty good size hill on this loop. We alternate directions so sometimes we go down the hill and sometimes we run up it. It definitely has a way of stirring up the lactic acid like shaking a Coke can! Somehow (with some poking and prodding from Amy), I was put in group B with some speedos like Tom, Frank, Amy, Lee and others I don't know. I wasn't sure I could hold my own.

Mile 1: 6:54..Too fast and coach let us know it. The good news is that it didn't feel that bad.
Mile 2: 6:53..we ran up the hill on this one. At least we're being consistent.
Mile 3: 6:53..Is anyone else hurting because I am! I definitely felt that one.
Mile 4: 6:48..This was our last one and I was quickly running out of gas. It definitely hurt even though I was faster than the previous ones. I know I didn't have another one in me at that pace.

Even Group C behind us were coming in in the 6:30 range. Today's workout showed me a couple of things. First, I didn't lose any strength. These repeats were faster than ever and I was able to hold on to a steady pace. It also showed me that my first repeats were too fast. I wanted to run in the 6:30 range for the last one, but couldn't do it.

I was thrilled when he stopped us after four repeats. It was a hard workout, but a fulfilling one. Just like life...hard, but fulfilling.