Nothing like it

There's nothing like a good track workout to beat the running blues. I left home at 5:35 this morning to carpool with Sarah to the Piedmont High School track, about 15 minutes away. I'd been independently invited by two people to join a group that runs there on Thursday mornings, and I finally decided to overrule my aversion to driving to runs and bite.

I was definitely not disappointed. After warming up for 5 laps, I assembled with the others at the start, stretched a bit, and met Joe, the run leader. He gave us the workout: 3x1600 (400 recovery) with a twist: in the second rep, we'd surge the last 100m, and in the third rep, we'd surge the last 200m. The object was to build fatigue while maintaining time.

I thought I could try these at 6:30 pace, but found Scott, another familiar face from Si's school, who was looking at 6:20. He assured me that this track was "fast", so I told him I'd try to hang, when one of his buddies talked him down to 6:10. In for a penny, in for a pound, I joined the group.

As we started, I figured out that this is a pretty fast club. I was in a pack of 10-12, with two other guys ahead of us. In short, the reps went 6:09-6:01-6:07 and felt great. This is a big contrast to how I felt after Saturday's 13 miler, and leaves me actually looking forward to Cow Town next week.

I won't be going to the track again before my race, but I definitely want to join this group again.