Very Special Date

......with the track.  Duh!  As I have mentioned before, I loooooved track back in the day.  I decided to break down and find a track to do my speedwork on for my workout Monday.  I've done some searching in the past, and everything within running distance is locked up tight.  I finally got the head's up from Joseph that there was a 4 lane track near-ish to where I lived.  Heck ya!  The funny thing is, I used to run by this track everyday when I first started running (it was on my regular running route) and always thought it was locked up tight.  Nada.

I had 5 miles to do with a one mile warm up and 8 x 400, with recovery jogs of 400 m. in between.  My goal pace for the 400's were 1:42-1:48 (6:48-7:12).  The weather was GORGEOUS.  We're talking low 60's, barely any humidity, crazy overcast, and a slight breeze.  This would've been perfect track meet weather back in the day. ;)  [btw, just went to insert a pic from high school track here for nostalgia sake and realized that facebook deleted the album of random HS pics.  A-holes. :(]

I did a nice warm up mile on the track, and quickly remembered why I hated running distance in track.  You want me to run how many laps?!?!?!  Haha, ok not quite that bad, but I definitely preferred to run 1/4 of the track or 1/2 of the track vs. 4 laps.  ;)  After the warm up I stretched really well and then got ready for some speed!

I started out a bit too fast on the first repeat, but didn't fade too much.  After the first couple of 400's, I felt the pace pretty easily and stopped looking at the pace on my Garmin altogether.  It's so much easier to get into a groove pace-wise when you're going fast.  After the 4th 400 I took a quick water break for a sip.  On #5 there was a guy who started 150-175 m. ahead of me, that I decided to chase down.  Heh, competitive little B.  The last lap I ran a really hard final 150 to see how fast I could get it done in.

I finished the 5 miles in 42:24 for a pace of 8:29.  My avg. pace for 400 was 1:40.  Maybe I'll move my goal pace up a little bit next time I do these. ;)

Recovery	1 Mi	9:37	9:37	9:37
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:39	11:16	6:36
Recovery	0.25 Mi	2:20	13:36	9:20
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:42	15:18	6:48
Recovery	0.25 Mi	2:25	17:43	9:40
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:41	19:24	6:44
Recovery	0.25 Mi	2:29	21:53	9:56
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:48	23:41	7:12
Recovery	0.25 Mi	2:26	26:07	9:44
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:37	27:44	6:28
Recovery	0.25 Mi	2:21	30:05	9:24
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:39	31:44	6:36
Recovery	0.25 Mi	2:28	34:12	9:52
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:41	35:53	6:44
Recovery	0.25 Mi	2:33	38:26	10:12
Interval	0.25 Mi	1:33	39:59	6:12
Recovery	0.25 Mi	2:25	42:24	9:40

I really wanted to take some sweet pictures of my new love, but there were quite a few people walking/jogging/rollerblading w/their dogs (wtf?), so I felt silly.  Good thing I see there being many many more dates to come!

The best part of the track is that it's totally bike-able distance from my apartment, just not tonight as I a Mexican food date with one of my best guy friends from college.  I think I'm in looooooooooove.*

*With the track, for clarification purposes. ;)