800’s and Wilco
Today’s going to be a sort of busy day. I’ve got 12×800’s on the track and then Wilco playing tonight.
Last week I wasn’t sure what I should do with my running workout. I did the ~2 mile run to the track to warm up and then most of the people were headed out to do hills but I was changing schedules. So I asked the coach if I should go do hills or start track work with the other fellas. “Go ahead and do track - 12 800’s.” “Yay!” I thought.
Good christ was I wrong.
Track work, it turns out, is very, very hard. The other guys (plus Rose) have a bunch of advantages on me. First, they started track work three or four weeks earlier. I don’t know how much of a difference this makes, but not having any track work under my belt and jumping into the 12x repeat instead of ramping up from 6 like I think they had set me back at least a little psychologically. Also, I think most people in the club have a much more solid base than I do of foundation running. As I’ve read and learned more about the running pyramid leading up to a marathon and the types of running to do and what my target paces should be, I’ve realized I just don’t have the background of early, solid running that I really feel like I should. This is mostly OK, it’s just making me realize that I’m possibly more at risk for injury and probably won’t have my peak performance in Portland (and if I don’t qualify for Boston with my first marathon, I should feel OK about that).
But I’d originally been doing tempo runs (which I should have a huge base of) simply as “pretty hard runs” without really paying a ton of attention to pace. Then I found out my 5K pace at the Firecracker and realized I should be doing tempo runs at a pace of about 7:10 minute miles and I’d probably been doing 7:30 or 7:45. Then I found out from more running that I could really do a 5K way faster than I did the firecracker and my tempo pace should probably have been closer to 6:40’s.
…
But I’ve clearly learned next to nothing from my sister’s advice that she “couldn’t pretend to be intereste” in my blog, so for a change from my recent posts about running and more running - tonight Wilco are playing at Marymoor in Redmond. I’m really excited for this show. Every time I’ve seen Wilco they’ve been terrific. I missed Jeff Tweedy on his solo tour in the northwest and regretted that since they came out with the DVD of that tour which just looked incredible. I’m sort of excited that the new album has Wilco exploring yet another musical direction, but less excited about the actual direction. But I know they still put on a consistently awesome live show, so as long as the weather holds out I’m really excited about the show.
Now it’s time to get to those 800’s, though…