12.19.17

With the busy-ness of holiday travel ahead, I have been trying to frontload this week with some mileage and quality. Yesterday, was my first double in two years (maybe) and today I got the same guys who ran with me yesterday afternoon to join me for an impromptu track workout.

I consulted the Daniels Running Formula and grabbed one of Jack's staple early buildup (which I am in) R-workouts. Sets of 2 x 200 + 1 x 400. Based on my recent 5k time of 16:41, this called for 200's at 36 and 400's at 74. That seemed manageable and not all-out, but definitely still faster than anything I've done recently. I arrived at the Gordon College track a few minutes before noon. It was unseasonably mild (mid-40's) and as I turned into the driveway the sun came out from behind the clouds for the first time all day.

I hopped out of the car and jogged to the track. There was a really fast-looking college girl doing 150's in sprint spikes. I hoped I would look so fast. I started jogging an easy warmup and Nate showed up on the second or third one and we chatted while running easy. After two-miles, Al showed up and I ran to the bathroom while he got in a quick mile. Then we toed the line for the first 200. Because there was a little ice on the final curve, we decided to run our 200's from the finish to the start. The first one I felt like I was getting way up on my toes and using muscles I haven't in a while. We came through in 36 and jogged REAL easy back to the start. The second one I decided to run more normally, because I was nervous how sore I'd be if I ran two miles on my toes. It was a 38. We jogged another 200 and went into the first 400. I felt ok going through 200 and didn't check the watch, but never felt bad on the way to a 72-high. We jogged the corner and back and then did the sequence again.

Most of the 200's ended up 37.xx and the 400's were 74-flat or faster. We did 4 sets and then two miles for a cooldown. I think we all were glad to have it done and activate some muscles that hadn't been used in a while for any of us.

I'm pretty sure I felt so good because of the Rothlin workout I did a few years ago.