View Workout (Matthew Simonson)

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:) :) :) :) :)

November 27, 2018 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Workout tonight with BAA, my running club in Boston, for the first time in 3 months. Felt so gooooooood to have teammates to train with, push me, chat with after as we basked in the glow of our accomplishment. I haven’t pushed myself that hard in a half a year or more.

1200 - 4:13 (400m recovery)
800s - 2:42, 2:42, 2:37, 2:35 (200m jog between pickups)
400s - 74, 73, 74, 72 (60 seconds stumbling/gasping after each)

I had a pack of 4 guys, Andreas and 2 new fellows Peter and Alex, who were right around my speed. Well Andreas is probably better than me and he’s the reason the pace got so insane on those 8s, but when it came to the 400s I seized the initiative and no one else came close. I tried to keep calm tell myself I’m strong on the first half of each pickup, keeping my breathing controlled and even cracking jokes with the other runners during the early ones. As the workout progressed there were times when I could feel myself slipping and the pack getting away but I resolved to not let that happen, to not let my inner loser take control and resign myself to not being able to keep up. I usually had a song going in my head for the first half to distract me and provide a stready rhythm but when things got tough I found a new secret weapon: reciting the names of my GDS teammates and kids I’ve coached in my head, telling myself not to let them down. Do it for Ben, do it for Harrison, do it for Tracy... (if you’re one of the regulars who reads this, yes, your name probably came up too, I’m not gonna try to list them all). Thinking of them gave me the motivation I needed - it’s a lot harder to give up on yourself when you’re thinking of someone who inspired your or whom you hope to inspire every stride. On the last lap of the last pickup,I was having flashbacks back to indoor track during my sophomore year of high school, the first time I actually had other people looking up to me as a leader on the team (or in any domain for that matter). I mentally placed myself back in that situation and told myself that my friends and classmates, the out-of-season rowers like Alex Hemmer and Christine O’Connell, we’re watching me as an example and I couldn’t let them down. As I whipped around the turn, I could hear Adina Puteh cheering for me in a Sunday morning 2-mile at the PG County Sportplex, a rather strange cheer I’ve never heard before or since that’s stuck with me all these years. I wailed down the homestretch and just barely remembered to finish looking strong and with good form as I approached the coaches and runners waiting at the start/finish line. Upon crossing the line I felt thrilled but exhausted knowing I’d never given up, hadn’t ever lost the pack or abandoned the pace once it got faster, and held the lead I set on every one of those final 400s. Workouts like this remind me how rewarded and refreshed I feel when I push myself through discomfort to overcome a big challenge in running or anything else I set my mind to.

Afterward, I cooled down with Amanda Watters who told me she was recently elected to a high up position in USATF and is working to change the rules so that women run the same distance as men in club cross country meets and score the same number of runners on a team. I hope she succeeds!