Day 129 - To the track

I had the kids tonight (the wife was headed out for a girls night out) and wasn't sure when I was going to get in my run. I thought I was going to be relegated to the treadmill again when my youngest had a brilliant idea. "Dad, can we go over to the school and ride our bikes?" That was the best idea I heard all day. You see, the track at our high school is asphalt - terrible for a high school meet, but perfect for a dad with two kids and their bikes. I put them in the outside lanes and they can ride their little hearts out and I can get in a track workout.

My initial plan was to just run three miles and call it a day. I figured they would be tired and ready to go home. I really didn't even plan to run fast. I was thinking I would just run a steady 7:30-7:40 pace and go home 23 minutes later. But, as the saying goes, you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy.

I ran exactly one lap at 7:30 pace, and then it happened. My pace got steadily faster and faster. Each lap just slightly faster than the previous. I finished the first mile in 7:17, and the second in 6:50. 14:07 for the first two miles. At that point, I decided I would stop and stretch and see if I could do a repeat of that for a second two mile, then finish with a faster single mile. Mile three did not disappoint and I finished the first four laps in 6:39. Again, each lap was slightly faster than the previous. I thought I might start to slow at some point, but it didn't happen on the 4th mile. In fact, I ran that mile even faster in 6:27!

I stopped to check on the kids who had ditched their bikes and were looking for trouble. Fortunately I was able to distract them with the playground just outside the track and they were content long enough for me to attempt my final mile.

With the succes of the first four miles, I wanted to end the workout with a strong finish. I was guessing I could run the last mile in 6:20 if I really pushed it. That meant I would have to run each lap in 95 seconds - which was three seconds faster than the final lap of mile 4.

Lap one was right on a perfect pace of 95, and I followed it up with a 93. That gave me a 3:08 for the first 800m. I was two seconds ahead of pace, but my legs didn't care. I was feeling great and sped around the third lap in 91 seconds. I really didn't know what to expect on the last lap. It felt like the wind really picked up when I was headed into it and I have expected the final lap to be slower, but I was pretty sure I was still going to make the 6:20 - there was no way I would be 6 seconds slower than the 95 I was shooting for. As I hit the final straightaway, the wind was not going to give in. I reached the finish line, hit my watch, and looked down to see I had finished in 89 for a finishing time of 6:08, with a final half mile time of 3 minutes even!

I really needed a fast run to finish the week. It's been one of those weeks where I just wasn't happy with my running. This finishes the week strong and gets me ready for another day in the streak to 1000.