TRACK!
April 28, 2010 | 9:47 am
It's been a while since my last entry as there hasn't actually been all that much to report. Strangely enough, after bragging on my last entry about being injury free, I pulled my calf in what was to be the last hard workout before the Lung Run. I ended up taking about a week off, and needless to say, decided that 5K road race was not worth risking my season over. There are a few other options to choose from for my season debut, but I'm starting to lean towards a 3K at the Moonlight Meet at Saint Mary's on May 11th. I haven't raced a 3K since 2003, so it should be interesting. I don't want to open with a 1500m or 800m because I don't want to put too much pressure on my first race in two years. I just want to get out, be competitive, and see if I can't have some fun. The real racing doesn't start until June anyways.
Since the injury, training has gone fairly well. My first week back was really low key. I did 3 times a mile in my first workout, fairly slowly (between 5:05-5:10) with a few strides. After that it was all tempo and hill work for two weeks. One workout that was particularly tough was a hill workout I did up Point Pleasant Park drive. The hill must be close to 800m long and it is NOT easy to do repeats on.
Although the workouts were all going well, I was starting to panic a little bit. My body was a little run down and I was starting to feel slow and sluggish. This is a feeling that is fairly typical during a base season, but no matter how many times you go through it, it still makes you question your fitness. So yesterday was a re-introduction to track stuff. I got to actually do some running at race pace. The first set was 500, 300, 200 at 1000m pace. I opted not to wear spikes in the first one, just in case my calf is not yet 100% and was very conservative on the first rep, coming through 500m in 1:15. Getting the feel back for the track, I got a little excited after that and really attacked the rest of the workout. I was 43s for the 300m and 28s for the 200m. After twelve minutes of steady state running between sets, I put my flats on and did a set of 400m, 200m, 100m, 100m in 54s, 27s, 13s, 13s. No, it's not the best workout I've ever done, but it was definitely encouraging. I had been feeling like my speed was all gone, and now I can relax a little bit knowing I can still run a fast 800m pace. I didn't feel as smooth as it used to, but I didn't tie up at all at the end of the workout and likely could have done a third set. I feel like I've completely recharged the batteries now and I'm excited about running again.
Once I've made a concrete plan for a season opener, I will post it on the blog. And until then, GO HABS! Ovechkin is a chump (Rich Lehman's comments on Alexander Ovechkin are the opinions of Rich Lehman and do not necessarily reflect those of Aerobics First. Although they should).
