Going Out A Little Fast

Workout date: 5/5/16

Wednesday showed me that I can't handle some of the more technical movements at the gym at the moment, so on Thursday I decided to take on something that I'm a natural at: running around in circles.  I didn't say I could do that particularly fast, but it wasn't something where I was going to need instructions repeated to me over and over again.  At least I hoped not...

The weather was considerably nicer than it had been the week before.  I wasn't sure what was in store for us at this week's class.  I felt pretty certain that there wouldn't be any time trials as we had done the mile, the 800 meter, and the 400 meter time trials all relatively recently.  We had done the bleacher workout a few weeks ago.  If we were going for a trail run, we probably wouldn't have met up at the track.  That seemed to narrow down the possibilities to two: either a workout with a lot of sprints (200 meter and 400 meters) and not a lot of rest between runs or a workout with a variety of medium-distance runs (600 meters, 800 meters, and 1,000 meters) that also would not have a lot of downtime between runs.  Endurance is all about working even though you haven't completely recovered from the last part of the workout.

We wouldn't be getting the workout from Tim though as it turned out that he wasn't coaching again.  Laura P and Miles showed up to teach class, with Miles appearing happy about the fact that he wouldn't be trying to dodge the rain for an hour while sitting in his stroller.  Tim wasn't the only usual face missing, as Laura A, Kevin B, John McHugh, and Jen S were all no-shows as well.  Matt E, Borden, Alona, and Jill H were in attendance along with some new faces.  I had never seen Alex R at Endurance before, but I've seen her run by me a bunch of times during WODs.  I suspected she was going to be leading us around the track no matter what the workout was.  There was also a guy who I've never met before.  I asked a couple of people what his name was and they didn't know him either, so I'm just going to call him Anonymous for the rest of this post.  And then there was this gentleman named Flounder who showed up for class.  I vaguely remember seeing him at an Endurance class in the past, but it had been a really long time ago.  He explained to the class that his prolonged absence was due to "life".  Riiiiiiight.

We ran a warmup lap and did some drills before Laura had us do three 150 meter striders.  Then she explained to us what the workout would be.  We would be doing two 800 meter runs and two 600 meter runs with about three minutes rest in between each of the runs.  Yikes.  What pace were we supposed to run?  There was some discussion about how our 800 meter time should be about 70% of what it would be during a 5K, but Flounder and I did the math and that didn't make sense.  We would have needed to go faster than we did in the recent time trial if that was true.  Having completed the 800 meters in 3:04 during the time trial, I decided that something around 3:30 would be a reasonable pace for this workout.  I'd be trying to run these fast, but not going so fast that I would end up too exhausted for the remaining runs.  Whether we were using the 70% of your 5K pace system or not, Laura wanted our times to be fairly consistent from one run to the next.

We lined up for the first run and I took a spot towards the middle of the starting line.  I've never been all that fast out of the blocks, so I tend not to line up towards the inside unless I'm lining up behind people there.  Laura sent us on our way and a couple people to the inside of me went out to the lead, but they didn't seem to be going all that fast.  As we headed down the first 100 meters, I passed all of them.  If I was in front, there was no point in going wide around the turn, so I took a peek to my inside before transitioning over to lane 1.  I went around the turn and down the backstretch at a pace that felt reasonable to me, but there was something eerie about this run.  Even if I made the lead, I expected to hear someone close behind me or coming up on my outside.  I didn't hear anybody and it was totally messing with my head.  As I finished up the first lap, Laura yelled out that I had finished it in 1:28, a second faster than I had gone in the time trial.  Oops.  I might have gone out a little too fast there.  My body just wasn't going to tell me until the second lap.  I was coming to grips with how painful the second lap was going to be when Alex ran by.  She had totally Jill Cardamoned me, silently lurking behind me before kicking on by once my pace weakened.  Things had turned quickly.  I wanted to go with her, but she accelerated into the first turn and put a sizable gap between the two of us.  I was now at the point where I was expecting someone else to go by me, but I made it all the way back to the finish line in second place.  First 800 meter time: 3:14.

My goal was something around 3:30, but I went 16 seconds faster than that.  The worst part was that I was now expected to duplicate that effort in three minutes.  As the rest of the class finished their runs, I tried to walk around and get my breath back.  But as is always the case when you're working out, the breaks you take while the clock is ticking are longer than you think and the breaks you take as scheduled rest zip by much faster than anticipated.  Laura brought us back to the line for our second run and we were off again.  I was not going to repeat my mistake.  I made sure that I went slower during the first 200 meters of this run.  Oddly enough, I got to watch what I did on the first 800 meter run.  Matt (playing the role of me) went out to the lead and there was Alex running behind him.  There was a fairly big margin back to me in third.  As we finished the first lap, Alex went by Matt just as she had passed me during run #1 and I began closing in on Matt.  Going around the first turn for the second time, I tried to push in order to reel in Matt, but it became clear that I was going to have to do quite a bit of sprinting to catch him.  There didn't seem to be anybody about to pass me, so I kept running at the pace I was going.  I was the third one finished with the second 800 meter run.  Second 800 meter time: 3:27.

It wasn't ideal that I ran 13 seconds slower for the second 800 meters, but that time was much more in line with the pace I should have been running during the first half-mile.  And there was simply no way that I could put together back-to-back times of 3:14 with limited rest.  Speaking of limited rest, the class was making their way to the opposite side of the track.  The 600 meter run was a lap and a half, meaning that we were starting from a different spot for the final two runs.  When we got over there, Laura already had her hand in the air signaling that we should get ready to go.  She dropped her arm and we were off.  Alex was done drafting off of other runners as she spurted out to the lead, with Anonymous behind her.  Matt was sitting in third while I took another shot at trying to pace myself properly.  We passed Laura at the finish line and there was one lap to go.  I began to pick it up from there.  As we headed down the straightaway, I passed Matt.  Then as we went around the turn, I passed Anonymous.  Alex was long gone, so my goal at that point was to make it to the finish line in second.  We hit the final turn and I could hear Anonynous closing in on me as he made a final sprint.  Crap.  If I was going to hold on to second, I needed to sprint to the finish as well.  Being the stubborn SOB that I am, I sprinted the final 100 meters and got home in second place.  First 600 meter time: 2:23.

The reward for going all out on that sprint?  Limited rest!  Yay!  As the rest of the class came past the finish line, we all started slowly jogging back to the starting line of the 600 meters.  Just one more run to go.  We must have gotten there quicker this time around because we had to wait about 10 seconds before Laura's arm went back up in the air.  When she dropped her arm, Alex took off on us like our feet were glued to the track.  Matt was faring better on the second run like he had done during the 800 meters, trailing her in second place with Anonymous behind him.  I was more than happy to sit in fourth, hoping to duplicate what I had done in the previous 600 meters.  The only problem was that I wasn't moving as fast.  As we passed the finish line, I tried to pick it up again, but I made up little ground on the two gentlemen in front of me.  With 200 meters to go, I told myself it was the last run and to give it everything I had.  Maybe I accidentally said it out loud, because as soon as I thought it, Anonymous kicked it into another gear and started closing in on Matt.  There was almost no chance of me catching either of them now, so I ran as hard as I could from that point on without sprinting.  Anonymous did catch Matt right before the finish, leaving me to settle for fourth.  Second 600 meter time: 2:37.

I was really happy to be done, but then someone said we still had to do a tabata.  My first reaction was agony, as I assumed this meant we were doing tabata sprints.  Luckily, it was tabata sit-ups instead.  I'm not sure if I like tabata sit-ups more than most, but I was much more enthused about doing sit-ups than I would have been if additional running was required.  Tabatas are eight rounds long with 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest.  I tried to knock out my sit-ups as fast as I could, getting 11 in round one.  Then 11 in round two.  As the rounds went on, I would complete sit-up #11 just as the electronic voice on Laura's phone counted down to 1.  The goal became 11 sit-ups in every round and that is precisely what I did.  Final tabata score: 88 sit-ups.

After a cool down lap, I headed back to the gym to do my final light front squat session.  It's funny how the 6x2 session with 215 pounds was not so easy at first, but now I could tack it on to the end of a workout just to get the session done.  I had planned for a couple of weeks to do my test day on Monday, May 9th and with a busy weekend in store, I knew I needed to get this last session in on either Thursday or Friday.  Since I was already sweaty, I figured I might as well get it done on Thursday.

Friday preview: Good thing I did it Thursday night.  I had to cancel my plans for working out as I ended up being extremely busy all day Friday.  My first class with new coach Jill A would have to be postponed until next Friday.

Monday preview: TEST DAY!  Would all of the work I put into the front squat program pay off?