Friday, February 5, 2016

Varsity for a Day

Monday
No miles were run today!  Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday are the new core days, and if I get in a 5th, it will be spontaneous.

Tuesday
#10kTuesday guest runner
Avg Pace: 10:15
Distance 6.2 / 3.1


5:15 AM!  I started this run at 5:15 AM!  Eeep!  #10kTuesday is a handful of runners just a smidge (read light years?) faster than me.  They have been running together at 5 AM for about a year; typically the same 6.2 miles in Alpharetta / Roswell.  (Hence the 10k).  I knew I wanted to do this at least once at some point or another, and having bailed on getting up to run on the treadmill for numerous Tuesdays, despite best intentions and KNOWING that W5K in the evening would NOT cover the half-training distance , now seemed good. ... I knew I needed to commit to something beyond my control.

The night before was hellacious.  I actually tossed and turn, fretful that I would miss the alarm, talk myself out of getting up, or worse, show up and find that these friends of mine were actually Olympian speed demons in disguise!  Ruining their work out was at the forefront of my mind.  I haven't been that off kilter since the night before the Tri, or Peachtree! Lol.

Turns out, though .. not so bad. :)  Brandi did come back for me a few times, but I think she's used to it, and uses it to get in more distance.  I'm a bit more used to our #100selfies group approach.  Chat at the start mile, cheer each other when passing, and hang at the end, but if this is what they do, and they don't seem worried about it, then I feel no guilt. Either way, the path was well lit, and easy to follow.  A few mini-hills tucked in, but nothing like the Martin's Landing hillfest I played out in my head for no good reason.

In fact, running with this pod gave me deja vu of my Freshman year in high school when I started with cross country.  As a Freshman, you don't typically make Varsity, but a few weeks in, we went out to run this dell in New Jersey.  None of the Freshman went on the optional trip out into the country, since the focus was on running this a course run for a race that Freshman did not do.  So my options were: keep up with Varsity, or roam the Jersey country side on my own for days on end.  The ladies on my team were "fun running" this as a course run; some of them were competing in State or Regions here in a few weeks.  So it wasn't impossible, as if they were racing it.  But still.  So I tied my "mental lasso" on the last one, and they on occasion would peak back, just to make sure I was still hanging on. When we came out of the woods and jogged back to the coaches, they checked our times, and then one of the coaches pulled me aside and said, "you hung with them the whole way? i'm impressed!"  A couple of weeks later, Varsity jacket!  Proof that if you can't run with muscle, run with heart!

I finished #10kTuesday at 10:15 avg pace, which was my goal for the morning.  Boom.

In the evening, the W5K ladies did interval work, and I got to run with, rather than cheer on.  That was perfect, and I got another (slower) 3.1 in with them.

Thursday
Distance: 2 miles; one warm up, one ~race pace
OCEE Park (WINDY!)

Zoom zoom. :) 


Friday
The Day Before A Race.  Commence Panic!  But first, I have a Fitbit challenge to finish. I'm going to get in a lunch walk, and will do a repeat of yesterday's work out right after work.

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