Great Wide Open

This morning I was exchanging emails with a teammate about my impressions of the last night 4x1200s (5k pace w/ 400m jogging recovery).  He rightly thought it might be a challenging follow-up to racing last Sunday, but noted how important they were in terms of fundamental development.  Other than my flats dying on me, I really enjoyed the workout.  I would attribute much of the good vibes to being outside on a 400m track vs. indoors on a 200m.  Also, reducing the mileage over the last 10 days has left me fresher and able to focus on gearing up for the Tuesday/Thursday team workouts.  That said, I was still mindful of the hip.  No discomfort (massage planned for Sunday), but I definitely babied it with a reduced stride length and no surging.  To the point of another teammate suggested that I need to lengthen out my stride to take advantage of my height.  She said “you are too fast to be running at your current pace” … she said it with encouragement in mind.

My strategy last night was to be consistent in effort.  No surging.  Be balanced.  Find and hold a rhythm.  With 1200s you are basically talking about mile repeats in prep for 5ks, etc. so I put the sprint mentality (ego) aside and attempted to run tactically with a couple of caveats in mind: (1) go slow on the 1^st interval to get a sense of really how my legs would respond and (2) keep it all in check to save juice of Thursday and the LR on Saturday.

Overall, mission accomplished.  A little disappointed in the final interval … would have liked a 4:46-4:48, but I know I slowed up to resist the urge to surge.  We are seeing maturity here people!  I will say that unlike indoor sessions at shorter distances, last night was a truer approximation of my 5k pace.  I believe it’s in the 6:30-6:35 range. In that respect, last night was a success especially considering I remained controlled … no heavy breathing, etc.  Also, the comment on my short stride is consistent with the effort too … short stride = keeping it all in check.  As I get more comfortable on the 400m track, I would expect the stride to lengthen to take advantage of the longer straight-aways.

Now on to the not so great.  My kicks.  Frankly, I’m lucky I have not injured myself in the Asics Piranha’s.  4 oz. + 186 lbs = bad combo.  I raced on Sunday in them and while I didn’t notice any issues at the time, I definitely felt it when I switched to normal shoes.  The bottoms of my feet were sore and irritated.  Even before last night’s workout, I tried on another brand to replace them.  To be fair, the Piranha’s are basically a sock + waffle for the base.  I noticed a guy on the A team wore them last night which is a sure sign that they were not for me … he’s about 30-35 lbs lighter than me. As a result, I suffered a bit last night.  I put some hard miles on the flats with 3 races including a 10k, so it’s not a surprise they died at less than 100 miles.  Last night I was angry, but in the final analysis, it was just a bad match from the jump.  The next speed work / racing kicks will be Nike Lunar Racer 1s – 6 oz, but with more substantial cushion and spring in the sole.  After I run in them, I’ll give a report.