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GAAAAAAA that was a crazy-long workout!

October 3, 2017 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I showed up to our weekly BAA running club track workout tonight find discover that what I thought I'd read on the website--4-by-mile with and 800 at the end, already the longest workout of the year-- was in fact 4 x (mile with a hard 800 after each). Gaaaaaaaaaaaaa! 6 miles of hard! This was going to be by far the longest track workout since 2013, and the second longest I'd done in my life. Our club's coach Michael told us if was going be "really tough" and that we could do just 3 sets instead of 4 if unless we were really in shape. Right then and there I decided that I was going to try for 4, at least initially, since I had resolved a week or two back that I could no longer honestly convince myself that I was still merely "getting back into the swing of things." The pace for the miles was supposed to be LT--Lactate Threshold--which is one of those terms which has a very specific physiological meaning, yet always seems very vague when applied to me personally (mile pace? marathon pace? How should I know when my body is on the threshold of producing lactic acid?). In this case, however, it meant "the pace you could hold for an hour", so in between my 10k pace and half-marathon. Of course, even then its hard to know how close I am to my PRs in those distances at this point in the season, and doing race pace on a track for longer races always feels impossibly fast somehow (my legs: "we kept THIS pace up last race? How on earth did we do that?"). Nevertheless, once the pickups started, I just told myself to relax and much as possible and avoid getting bored.

The pacing was as follows: mile at LT, 400m recovery, 800 at 10k pace, 200m recovery. Not much of a recovery before starting that next mile, but I quickly got used to it and so it was enough. For the first two pickups, I consciously hung back from the top group by 10-15 seconds and chatted a bit with TK, who was just coming back from 10 days off following the Berlin Marathon. Sometime during the second-mile pickup, right around the 1000m mark, I suddenly realized that I was almost halfway done and that it was going to be okay. I could survive. I was almost halfway. Of course, I still had a lap and a half to run, plus another 800 pickup before I was really halfway, but mentally I was already there. I knew I could finish all four sets. TK wisely dropped out after the next 800m and so I was left with a choice of running on my own or pushing myself to join the top group. That was when an amazing thing happened. I started chatting with the guys around me during the pickups and they suddenly became a LOT easier. We were cruising 10 seconds per mile faster than I had been, but my mind was no longer focused on the pace or worried about getting through. I was quickly thinking of things to say or ask or joke about to pass the time, and that consumed all the mental energy that would have gone into fretting about how much I had left to run. The last four pickups flew by comfortably, in that comfortably uncomfortable sort of way. I wasn't talking on the last 800m, but by that time I knew I'd be able to pull it off no matter how fast we went. I finished feeling proud and confident, plus delighted that I'd found the top group to be a social as the second fastest co-ed group I'd been training with last month back when I was still getting into shape. Looking forward to the half-marathon this week (a tad slower than tonight), and another BAA workout next week.

10min hurdle mobility drills after, plus 10min standing dynamics and sprint drills beforehand.