Aug 6 - Round 'n Round

Today I was eager to get to the track as I have been feeling like I just have not settled into any sort of groove with my threshold runs so far this training season. Overall I am fairly satisfied with all my workouts but I just have not been feeling "comfortable" with threshold. Part of me attributes this to the fact that I have not been doing any actual racing lately. I feel like I have lost the eye of the tiger...my fear is that one day I will get my ass whooped by Clubber Lang (Rocky III reference) before I am forced to dig deep and find that hunger again! But today I was freshly inspired by JD's AWESOME 1/2 marathon in San Francisco (4th overall) so I headed to the track a little more pumped than usual.

The scheduled workout was:
2 mile warmup
8 x (5 minute Threshold + 30 second rest)
2 mile cooldown

Threshold Pace = 5:59, 5:54 min/mile for VDOT's 59 and 60.

I modified the workout slightly. Instead of 5 minutes I did 1400m and instead of 30 second rest, I did 200m recovery jog (~50-55 seconds). I ran a little longer and took a little longer of a break - I am not that bothered by it!

Here is what happened:
2 mile warmup (7:30 min/mile)
Threshold (time to run 1400m, pace, VDOT):
1. 5:10 min, 5:54 min/mile, 60
2. 5:12 min, 5:56 min/mile, 59.5
3. 5:13 min, 5:57 min/mile, 59
* Splash of water - extremely dry throat
4. 5:11 min, 5:55 min/mile, 60 (ish)
5. 5:10 min, 5:54 min/mile, 60
6. 5:09 min, 5:53 min/mile, 60
* Splash of water - extremely dry throat
7. 5:09 min, 5:53 min/mile, 60
8. 5:09 min, 5:53 min/mile, 60

Cooldown: 1.62 miles (7:32 min/mile)

Total Miles = 11.51 miles

It was quite dry, which resulted in a very dry throat. A few well timed gulps of H20...(Oh yeah!)certainly helped. The evidence is shown below. Overall, I am very pleased with this workout.

My one minor concern is my right soleus. It is as tite as my butt cheeks are when I am trying not to fart during an important presentation...hot damn!

Just keepin' it real, one ticked off Frenchie at a time...

A+