The workout for Week 2 of GLRR spring track included 6 x 800's. With the additional room on the track, Glenn and Jim were able to break out the runners into more specific speed groups, as oppose to everyone just following Jim's lead in Lexington.
It was a very nice turnout tonight with Matt, Bill, Alyssa, Scott, Andrea, Tom, Fil, Mike B., and a number of others that I can't recall off the top of my head showing up for the work out. In all there were at least 10-13 members broken out into about 4 different speed groups. I was in Group 1 with...myself. Sandbagger Fil and the majority of the other runners fell into Group 2, and so on, depending on their goals.
My goal for this spring is to consistently stay under 18's for the 5K, so Jim recommended that I go for 2:50's for my 800's, which I happily accepted. The only drawback was that nobody else was going to run with me. Festus, hurry back!
Mike (didn't catch his last name), but we'll call him Speedster II, was also at the workout tonight, and is not an official member of GLRR (yet). He's returning from a winter long hiatus due to an injury (more on that later), and this was his first day back on the track. Glenn told me that Mike would be someone I could work out with, so I waited as the other speed groups took off first. I waited a little bit more while Mike warmed up, and then he decided to take a detour to the bathroom.
I decided to just start my work out before it got too late.
I did my first 800 interval in 2:46, a little too excited on that one, due to the fact that running track outside (for the first time in my life!) felt great, even with the killer headwind on the final straightaway.
The next interval came and went in 2:51. That's more like it.
Mike finally returned from the bathroom and asked if he could jump in. We introduced ourselves and off we went. We nailed our first interval together in 2:50. Right on the money! What a huge difference it makes to have a training partner.
On our 400 rest interval, I learned that Mike lived in the Lowell area, and his 5K PR was in the low 17's. Perfect! Something for me to aim for. I also learned that he was getting over an injury from running over the winter. Part of it had to do with running at the Lexington track. The same track that GLRR used for winter workouts!
Mike had been going all out through the early winter on that track, and a few weeks into his workouts, his right hip started to bother him tremendously! This was exactly what I was experiencing by the end of winter track at the dome. Fortunately, my injury didn't sideline me for 5 months like it did for Mike. I think it was mainly due to the fact that I had held back on most of those winter workouts, and it was only when I started to pick it up near the end that the punishment of all of those short, banked turns eventually got to me.
We completed the fourth and fifth interval in 2:51 and 2:53. My mind kind of wandered on the fifth interval, so that was the reason for running slower than the target pace. I actually zoned out a bit on the fifith interval and thought it was the fourth interval! I guess Reno would call that being "mindlessness".
I felt great on the sixth interval, which I thought was the fifth interval, and completed that one in 2:49. I was disappointed to find out, when I came back around and ready to kick it in for the "final" interval, that I had already completed all six of my 800's! Wow. I was amazed at how effortless the workout had felt, and how much faster it is when you're not running around a track fifty times in a workout!
I can't wait for next week's track workout, and also wishing for less wind.
Expecting to put in a lunch time run with Fil, so it looks like we're doing the Parking Lot Series.
Map of tonight's run (this is more like it):
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