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Sharp!

September 24, 2019 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I was feeling sharp tonight. So too were my spiked. They're brand new and they were poking through my spike bag digging into my back the entire way to the track. I tossed the bag over the fence onto the track and then headed off for another 2 miles of warmup, feeling light and spritely. Got in a full set of leg swings for once and on the striders my legs were singing. It's gonna be a good workout, I told myself.

As happy as I was with the last three workouts, I knew my times were slower that my usual standard. For the past 8 years I've told myself that 80 seconds per lap is 5k pace, 84 is 8k pace, 85 is 10k pace, and 87 or 88 is half-marathon pace. This means that for most BAA workouts where the typical length of a workout is 4-5 miles in total and most pickpus are between 400m and a mile, I should generally be running mid to high 80s on the long things and low 80s or even high 70s on the short stuff. So far this season I've been several seconds above that. But tonight, as I was biking over, I told myself that I wanted to try to run my normal pace and perhaps keep up with Tim, the young guy who's been out ahead of my group the last several workouts (and Sunday's meet) but in reality is only running the pace I used to consider normal. I told myself I wanted to run 87 or 88 per lap on the initial 2k pickup and then 3:30s on the 1k, getting marginally faster in the second half. I still wanted to start off conservatively though and not get caught up in the excitement.

And that's exactly what I did! During the 2k, I just kept telling myself to stay relaxed, that I was doing well. Ilana Zeilinger believes I once shouted to her in a meet "You're feeling good!" and that convinced her she was, and for this strategy seemed to work pretty well internal for me this evening (though the cheering was all in my head). I kept telling myself I was doing fine and feeling relaxed and that helped convince that I was and calm my nerves. Then, one the 1ks, I would start each pickup staying relaxed on the first lap, letting the other guys go by me, and then working hard to the second. I began to feel a little daunted on number 3, but then I asked myself what exactly I was scared of. The fear wasn't about getting dropped, it was about having to work hard and fight in order to stay with the pack and keep hitting my times. That's ridiculous, I told myself. You're afraid of hard work? If you know you have enough reserves to not get dropped, then there's nothing to really be afraid of. I realized that if I could just get through the first lap feeling relaxed, then everything was going to be okay. I'd only need to work hard for one more lap and the final 200m kick would take care of itself. I'd sign American Pie to myself most of the way (thanks, Arthur) and try to distrct myself by staring at the legs of the guys in front of me. It really helped.

I ended up leading number 5. Most of the group stopped after that but I was feeling confident so Tim and I did the last one. I led the whole way on that and managed to knock off a bunch of seconds, not realizing till the end how much faster it was. I changed into my spikes and the 150s felt like a breeze. I clocked 15 seconds and then 14 seconds on the final 100m of the last two, which means I was going swiftly (400m pace) but not all out. I love getting put on fresh spikes. Afterwards, feeling elated, I decided to extend my cooldown to the Boston side of the Charles and add on several more miles. I wrapped up the run at New City Creamery, where I topped off my night with their Baklava flavor. Cause that's really the evening's highlight.

The cooldowns were 400m after the 2k, then 200m after each 1k, and a 50m walk after each 150. I'm combining them below (minus the walks) into the interval labeled "recovery".