The Great (Track) Outdoors

Before I get into the meat of the workout, I’m happy to report that my budget remedies (rolling-pin, ice)  for my quad seem to have worked.  Granted, I was on a softer surface last night, but it felt 100% normal.  Today is a rest day, so I am hoping the rest is doing the trick.

Okay, enough of the medical report.  The Armory was in fact unavailable on Tuesday.  Therefore, we gathered at the outdoor track CPTC’s uses for the warmer months of the year.  It’s located on the lower east side of Manhattan … for me it might as well be in Istanbul.  NYC has very good public transportation, but it was still a 30 minute walk once I exited the subway.  Next time I will leave the work clothes at the office and jog the 30 minutes as a nice warm up.  Thankfully, I did leave enough time to properly warm up (1.5 miles).  The track is 400m and rubberized, but without lights.  There are lights along the East River which in effect provides something.  Since the track was not as picturesque as The Armory, I didn’t bother with pics.  What I noticed was that there was no embankment from which you can push off on to the straight-aways and the elements could be an issue.  It rained all day in NYC, but fortunately stopped an hour before our session began.  The track was soggy (making it more springy) and the air was cool.

On tap, 8 600s at 5k pace with 200m recovery between each.  I searched my running log for the last time we did a series of 600s.  The last time was February 10^th.  Rather than just post last night’s results on a standalone basis, I wanted to compare Feb 10^th with last night:

A couple of thoughts come to mind.   Maybe more experienced runners can chime in, but I think you are suppose to be a few seconds slower outdoors than indoors.  One of the guys last night said this and I think it makes sense … fighting wind, etc.  With this in mind, I am pleased with the improvement over 6 weeks.  Dropping 7-15 seconds per interval is a solid start over a reasonably short period.  I’d like to see that continue into the summer.  The first two intervals felt comfortable, but then one of the B team guys (the crew that is one level ahead of my subgroup) who ran the HM on Sunday took the pace and quickened it a bit.  I’ll admit that the 3^rd interval stung.  Dropping 2 seconds may not seem like much, but for some reason I felt it.  On that point, I was speaking to one of the A team guys (stupid fast) on the walk to the subway and last Thursday’s progression tempo (3  1.7 mile loops at 7:43, 7:24, 6:46) definitely had lingering effects on me last night.  Nothing obvious, but the relative ease with which I usually have with intervals was absent.  By the 5^th interval my body (and/or mind) adjusted to the pace much better.   As usual, I slowed a bit on the second to last interval (that’s my thing I guess), but now realize that it is an effort to conserve since I try to surge on the final interval of the night.  Last night was no different and it was especially nice that I didn’t need to pace.  One of the indoor track racers came out and rabbited intervals 7 and 8.  He was lurking behind us on the first 6 so I knew he could drop the hammer on us at any point.  I love observing different running styles.  This guy has a short, super quick cadence.  (I’ve never seen video of me running so I have no idea what I look like.)  I noticed most of all the pitter patter of his feet … the rhythm was kind of hypnotic.  Anyway, I slipped behind him and another guy on the 7^th interval and tried to keep it relaxed.  On the final interval, I started out 3^rd and stayed there until we completed 400m at 85 seconds.  At that point I felt good enough to pump the arms, surge into 2nd and finish it off for 2:03.  He hit 2:01 and said I did a good job which was nice to hear from a really quick club veteran.  Coach also gave me some love.

Regarding form, since watching Deena Kastor blast away at Harlem Hill over the weekend, it has stuck in my head about pumping the arms more to increase pace without jacking up leg turnover too much.  Last night I noticed that I felt much better on the final 200m when I did so.   I don’t think I move my arms enough.  We’ll see how it goes for the next week or so until the race.