The Running Diva

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The move went fairly well although there were some glitches with furniture going in the wrong rooms…nothing like asking movers to move filing cabinets that they already lugged into one room to move them to another room down the hall. The new space is very posh. My computer table can raise up so I can stand while working if I want to. Nice!

The weather couldn’t have been nicer for tonight’s run. The track was completely dry and there was no wind at all. The group tonight was Eric K, Mike, Steve O, Merm, Rui, Wa-Wa and Syl. I was to do 6 x 1200m with 90″ rests, aiming for 4:06 (82″/lap). The other guys were doing 800s…of course, I rubbed it in that they were doing a workout for girls. They appreciated that. I had the luxury of having someone to run with on every lap of every set and we all worked together beautifully. I would lead everyone in the first 400 of every set. Syl would rest on my second lap while Rui and Wa-Wa would continue with me with Wa-Wa taking over the lead (and pacing it perfectly every time, I might add), then they would drop out and Syl would jump back in and lead me through the final lap, also dead on pace. I was so lucky. All I had to do was stick to them like glue. The first three intervals felt fairly relaxed (4:04-4:04-4:03) but as we were jogging during the rest I could feel that the recovery was feeling short heading into the fourth. That one was starting to get gaspy (4:03). O’Cal asked me how I was feeling and I said pretty good…uh-oh…shouldn’t have said that. ‘Ok, let’s see if you can go sub 4:00 on this next one.’ His Irish lilt made it sound like it would be fun to run a faster 1200 even though I was heading into it in oxygen debt mode. We had to run 80″ for each lap. All I can say is the last lap of that 1200 had me making sounds that could have been used as dubbing material for a porn flick. Seriously. 3:59 for the 5th! Wa-Wa and Syl didn’t let up the pace despite the desperate sounds I was emitting and Paul kept us focused right to the end. The final 1200m was 4:03 and ended with me feeling I had accomplished a lot and grateful to have had so much help. We all did the warm-down together and the rest of the night was super relaxing.