The Track Substitution

Hail my running brothers and sisters!  It’s a good thing that I’m pretty because God didn’t bless me with a ton of brains.  At least that’s what my lovely wife says.  Case in point:  Dumbass move number 1.  Today was supposed to be an interval day on the track.  My interval workout has been 885m intervals with 443m recoveries at the David Lipscomb track.  According to my schedule, I’m supposed to have worked up to 10 by next week to make sure I’m ready for the marathon on the 24th.  Of course, this meant I would do 10 today, because that’s just the way I roll.  Schedules and rules are for the little people who are okay with being limited by society’s “rules” and “laws.” 

Dumbass move number 2.  When I got to the track, the gate was locked.  This seriously bummed me out, and I considered bagging my run today in favor of finding a track tomorrow.  However realizing that I had a fairly busy Friday, I decided to drive to work and do my interval workout around the outside of the stadium grounds at LP Field, Home of the Tennessee Titans.  Intervals on nice cork track;  a hard work out, but manageable due to the softness of the surface.  Intervals on concrete in the blazing sun;  clearly a level of hell that Dante forgot to mention.  Maybe it’s level of hell, 5.75.  The pounding to which I subjected my legs, left me shaking and exhausted after my run.

Dumbass move number 3.  Did I mention that the temperature got up to 75 today?  Well it did.  Of course, this meant I had to wear one of my darkest and  heaviest short sleeve sleeve technical shirts that I own.  When I was done, I had rings of sweat and salt all over my clothes.  Touching my fingers together was like petting salt.

It was a rough workout and I considered quitting my run short several times.  Sadly the little voice in my head kept pushing me on, and like a dumbass, I kept listening.  Alright here are the hard numbers:  The total distance was 6.98mi at an average pace of 8:54.  I did half mile intervals with 2:30 mins recovery laps  My splits looked like this:

03:15.6

03:36.9

03:26.1

03:37.7

03:46.2

03:49.4

03:51.6

04:01.5

04:04.4

03:46.6

My average pace ended up being 3:43.6, which is nearly a BQ time for training.  Not bad, considering that I nearly destroyed my legs to do this training.  Pretty good, considering that I flirted with my puke threshold towards the end.  And definitely stupid, considering that I had run a fast half-marathon just 5 days ago.  All right.  I can barely keep my eyes open, so I’m out.  Later kids!