Back to the Track

It is kind of amazing to me that my last blog post was back in February of this year. I always intend to write often and come across topics that I feel like writing about all the time but never get around to actually sitting down to do it. Lately the only workouts I have been participating in have been running and weight training. I haven't been in the water since I injured my shoulder back in August of 2010 and somehow limped through a triathlon swim at Lake St. Louis.

At this point I no longer have an excuse to be out of the water since my physical therapy has officially ended and I was theoretically given the green light to begin training again with the shoulder. I say theoretically because though I liked my doctor, he was very to the point in the exam room and after checking my shoulder mobility he was out of there---maybe 2 minutes tops. We never really talked about my training beyond the initial exam and I continued to run throughout the late summer and fall. The last doctor's order I received was to continue stretching at home after concluding my physical therapy sesssions. Perhaps I will begin swimming again on January 1st to make it a New Year's resolution type of thing. I also haven't been on my bike in what seems like forever---my last CX race was sometime in October, I think. I finally put the trainer tire on my bike but have yet to set up the trainer. Soon dear reader, soon.

As for my running, an objective observer would say everything is fine but it just feels so very off to me. My mileage is way down from where I would like it to be. Currently I am probably around 30 miles a week at this point. Alhough I will dutifully run with a group, I can't remember the last time I went for a solo run. I am just not motivated to do that right now.

However, I have found some recent inspiration in a friend of mine, Richard Anderson, who has mentioned on Facebook that he has plans to run an indoor track meet in February at Mizzou and double in the 400/800. Now, that my friends is my kind of racing schedule.....or at least it would have been back in high school or college. I was a middle distance runner back in the day and my heart still resides in the chaos and unpredictability that those with that rare combination of strength and speed can produce in flying from last to first over the final two hundred meters of a race. So, with an eye toward joining Richard on the track in mid February I went out to the local 400 meter oval late this afternoon (alone!) and decided to start pushing the pace and doing some real speed work.

Big River Running and Fleet Feet both sponsor speed work sessions over the summer but those workouts are designed for distance runners. They are usually running several miles over the course of each workout at a faster than race pace stretched over 400's, 800's and 1600 meter repeats for example. While those kind of workouts have their place, they aren't going to get you ready to roll a fast quarter or half mile. For that you need to drop the total distance covered and pick up the pace.

My spur of the moment decision to go to the track was partly inspired by the weather--it reached the mid 40's and I figured I could run the first half of the workout in my sweats and then take them off to fly on the last few reps. It is a good strategy to always finish your reps at a faster pace than you started with to give yourself a psychological boost. The initial plan was to run 8 x 200 meters with a 100 meter walk and a 100 meter jog between each rep, but I always give myself room to modify the workout depending on how I am feeling and responding during the workout itself. The main point of this session was to turn the legs over quickly and get them accustomed to running fast without going at a 100% sprint effort which is alway problematic when it is somewhat chilly outside and you haven't done any speed work in a few months. The recovery after each rep wasn't particularly important to me in this speed work session since the focus was on quick turnover.

I did a quick warm up and stretched before going to the line wearing three top and two bottom layers. I ran the first one pretty hard but not all out and came through the 200 in 35 seconds at about 90% effort. Wow, that felt fast but my downfall was I then started calculating my pace and realized at one point in time I could run an entire mile at that pace so I started feeling bad about not going faster. I quickly rationalized that while at one point in time I could run much faster than 35 seconds per 200 meters in this type of workout I also wasn't carrying around an extra 50 lbs. on my frame back then. For some people it is age that they think slows them down. While that will likely be a contributing factor at some point in my life, right now I think the excess weight I carry around is the primary cause of my slow times. Anyway, I ran the next three repetitions in 35 seconds which demonstrated some consistency in my pace. The sun was going down by this point and I had to decide whether to keep going for another four reps and also whether to strip off some of my layers in the hope of running a bit faster. I opted to keep going as I had been and assess after the fifth rep. That one I dropped the pace down to 34 seconds and decided to call it a day after one more while keeping on all the layers since I was worried I might pull something if I stripped down and tried to go too fast. I took a bit more recovery before the 5th and 6th reps and ran my final one in 32-33 seconds! I was happy with the results of the workout since I hit the anaerobic level while finishing each of the 200's and finished the last two reps faster than the previous four.

I finished up with a quick cool down jog and then headed over to the gym to catch a lifting class. It felt exhilerating to get back on the track and run sub five minute mile pace, even for a short interval like a 200 meter. I need to do it regularly to get myself ready for that track meet and even with two months until the meet I am both looking forward to and simultaneously dreading the experience.

For my distance runner friends who have never raced a quarter or half mile you just have no idea how different it is compared to a 10k, half marathon, marathon etc. The long distance stuff is hard in a more diffuse way but aerobically I consider it much easier and preferable to run a marathon than an 800. The 400/800 races put you in acute physical distress and the lactic acid can cripple you if you don't pace yourself carefully, but too much focus on a cautious pace can leave you sucking wind far behind the race leaders---it is like walking a razor's edge where there are different hazards on each side. I miss it. Stay tuned.