The Running Diva

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

I got in a good sing this morning. We have construction work going on on all the condo balconies in the front of our building. I wonder what the workers are thinking hearing me sing. I am shocked that I haven’t heard any operatic imitations in a falsetto coming from the scaffolding outside the living room balcony…not yet anyway!

When I got to the track tonight after work, Brent was already there getting the Vikes ready to start their WO. Paul is coaching Sean so he was there too having just come back from watching Dave and Ian’s track WO at Oak Bay. I did my 20 minute warm-up while going over the wo he had emailed me on the weekend: 400m in 82″ (45″) 800m in 2:45 (90″) 1200m in 4:10 (2′) 1600m in 5:30 (3′) 1200m in 4:05 (2′) 800m in 2:40 (90″) 400m in sub 80″.

Gulp! I was a bit unsure if I would be able to run those times but Paul assured me that the times he gave were just estimates and that we could adjust as we went along. He just wanted to see where I was at. So after a few strides, off I went. I knew I would be hurting in the longer intervals so I stayed as focused as I could. The Vikes girls were cheering me along as they did their cool-down (thanks you guys for cheering on granny!) and Paul was just brilliant! He gave me my splits, running diagonally across the in-field every so often, usually in the laps that were the toughest, encouraging me to hold the pace and not to slow-up, keep a high rhythm, use the arms etc. He also gave me tips as I was running and during the rests. It made the WO go by so much faster and he really helped me stay focused so I was able to stay on pace. My times weren’t exactly what we were aiming for but they were pretty close. I wasn’t  able to pick it up on all the intervals on the way back from the mile, partially because I was too chicken. I thought I would blow up if I pushed a bit harder…ok, and partially because I would have blown up if I went harder (ha!) but at least the pacing was pretty good and I felt I was in control: 76-2:42-4:06-5:30-4:06-2:40-76

Paul did the warm-down with me and I got to hear all these great stories of his racing days and how he had a group of guys that he ran with back in the UK. They did all their training together and that was the year most of them in that club ran PRs and were setting National records.