First group speed workout at track

Track selfie.

Today I finally tried speed workout at the track with some of the other Athens runners. Yay.

Going in to this, I had this first day of school feeling. This was my first track workout with a group since high school.

I showed up at the track and didn't know quite where the group met (by the 200 meter start, not the big starting line.)

We found the coach, did a lap for a warm up, did some stretching (not guided). There was four or so other guys there. One was a tall bodybuilder who said he wanted to run 3 miles in under 15 minutes. I just said I wanted to do well in the Marigold 10k in a month.

The workout was 400, 800, 400, 800, 400, 800, 400, with 1-2 minutes of break between each rep, more after the 800s, less after the 400s.

I told the coach I wanted to run 7:40 pace, so 1:55s for the 400s, and 3:50s for the 800s. He said to run the 400s a little faster and the 800s 5-10 seconds slower.

And we were off. I was at the very back of the pack. I was telling myself to run easy and consistently, and NOT go out too fast and burn myself out too early. (And NOT run with the boys though I wanted to. It was my first workout. I can be slow. And they can be thankful for the extra break.)

The coach did say to keep moving in the recovery. If others were walking, I did too. I should have been better about that.

The result: almost identical splits (which I'm super proud of.) I can usually do this in practice (yes, I do speed workouts by myself, the group is new for me), but not in a race. My pacing tends to be all over the place in a race.

Splits: 1:43, 3:40, 1:43, 3:42, 1:43, 3:40, 1:34

Which I think is 7:20 pacing. And I think I can sustain that for 2 miles. I want to get my 5k time, so maybe it's good to practice faster than race pace?

I ran a cool down lap. And honestly felt strong afterwards. (Also, it rained lightly during the workout. Very lightly. ) 

Today I tried a track workout, which was one of my goals for the year. I'd like to make more running friends. (I don't really remember people's names, except there was a fast girl name Sally and a redhead named Jean. More people showed up to practice late. I was happy for the company. Maybe 8 people? So not super intimidating.)

Running buddy.

As we were walking back to the car, I told Matt I wanted Grindhouse burgers (it's about a block away from the track. I love their turkey burgers). He told me I didn't deserve Grindhouse. HARSH.

He then clarified, that I didn't work that many calories, that maybe after one of our long runs, I'd deserve it.

Whatever. I was hungry and it's delicious. I went home and had salmon and kale, which is not nearly as fun.