Tuesday, February 27, 2024:

                                                                                 Great day on the track!

Today was a beautiful day for running. I ran to the Pilates studio for a session with Megan. We did a lot of stretching exercises. It felt really good to get in there and really loosen up my quads, glutes, etc. Afterwards I headed to Franklin Field. It was sunny and about 55 degrees when I arrived. No one was on the track for the first half of my workout, which felt like a real gift. Today's workout was the prescribed Week 3 track workout in Collins's book. 

(Side note: I have realized that I need to either compress the weekly workouts in Collins's book [e.g., combine the track workouts from two consecutive weeks into double workouts for one week], and/or, I will need to "skip ahead" at some point so that I can start doing more short sprint workouts. His book gives 52 weeks of workouts that begin at the start of September, building in complexity so that by the time you hit track season in the Spring, you're doing more and more sprint workouts, which are like the final preparation for races. Since I started in February, I will need to get through to later weeks in his program so that I can be doing those workouts in March, April, May, June. Therefore, this week, I am combining his Week 3 and 4 workouts--I will do the second one on Friday of this week. That workout, I believe, is stadium steps.) 

Yesterday on the treadmill, after my Pilates mat session, I ran 3 miles at about 8:10 per mile, with the incline set to .5 (I have read that a little incline is easier on the knees). Anyway, today's track workout was supposed to be 5 x 800 meters in 3 min 30 sec each with a 5-minute rest in between. Here's how I did:

1: 3:20

(4 and a half minute rest)

2. 3:09

(4 and a half minute rest)

3. 3:07

(4 and a half minute rest)

4. 3:11

(4 and a half minute rest)

5. 3:07

These 800s felt pretty good. I shaved 30 secs off the rest times between splits. And I was averaging at least 20 seconds better on the time Collins set. Was a little "breathy" at the end of numbers 4 and 5. But overall, it felt pretty good! Afterwards, I did give myself a little opportunity to push down on the gas pedal a bit to see how it would feel--ran about 50 meters at more of a sprint--and it felt great! I am so curious to see how fast I might be able to sprint in the 100, 200, and 400. I am committed to a slow buildup, getting a good base, building endurance, etc., but gee I am really looking forward to racing. In high school and college I was sometimes called a "heart runner" because I never really paid attention to split times and such during practices, but I would always perform well in a race--I didn't know much about what my time was in a race, but I always knew where the other runners were on the track, and I would always catch up to them, winning being paramount. 

Here's a short video of me rounding first curve onto the far straight on my last 800 split:

Form doesn't look too bad . . . maybe it looks pretty good? Again, it's tough to coach yourself!