Off to the Track

03/23/09 - Track

I had a little trepidation about going to the track last night on such a windy evening. If you've ever run on the Soquel HS track, then you know that there is one corner that gets blown out by wind. Not only are running the turns hard for some reason, but when you've got just 100m left of a sprint, you're rounding a corner and fighting gravity, and then you get pushed back by the wind, it can just suck the life out of you!

I already knew our workout tonight. I knew we were doing all-out sprints, and I knew that corner was there and that the wind was unforgiving, but I'm not one to skip a workout, so I pulled up at 5:30 ready to get moving. Started with a nice warm-up, just under a mile today. Looking back, I think I should have warmed up some more. It was accidental, but I like doing some tempo work after my warm up to get my muscles accustomed to a quick pace, but it's all a learning lesson.

The workout tonight was a continuation of our progress. Really quicken the pace, push ourselves way beyond the limits of comfort, but do it while staying completely relaxed and allowing all the effort to generate from our hamstrings. Our coach always tells us to stay numb from the knee down, keep your toes spread out in the shoe, let your hamstrings push you forward and your leg will follow, stay strong in the core, and loose in the arms. Yeah, that's all we have to remember while pushing through a hellacious number of sprints and staying totally calm and focused! Ha! What's next, juggling?

OK, back to the workout... tonight we did 200's (half a lap on the track) at about 85% effort, with a 100 rest, and repeat it 3 more times. Then we'd rest for a few minutes, and do the set again for a total of 4 sets. It sounded pretty easy to me at first, until I thought about rounding those corners and the wind, and not to mention all the people on the track lately that have no etiquitte. I'm not a grumbler when I'm running, but on a set of sprints when you are actually giving it everything you've got, it can be pretty annoying to have a group of women just standing and talking in the middle of the track! MOVE OVER!!! Of course, I always try to see the positive in things, so as I jammed passed them, I turned my thought to how I now have the ability to worry about this because I'm continuing to increase my speed. Before, people stopping in the middle gave me an opportunity to slow down and move around them, now I just sustain my focus and blaze on by! It must be working though, because I felt that my 200's were strong, relaxed, and efficient! What a payoff!

I noticed last night that I haven't been wearing a watch lately. Interesting with all this training that I'm doing that I'm not using one. I'm not sure why, but I've moved my focus away from time and just to my technique. I have a whole lot to learn from just paying attention to my technique, so maybe my watch was too much of a distraction? I'm happy to say that I noticed a nice improvement last night, as did our coach. I stayed strong and consistent through the sprints, and went home super sweaty and a little jello-legged... it's becoming one of my favorite feelings!