Track 800s

I talked Justin into doing 800s with me today because he doesn't have to work apparently after 1pm. So we met up with Jimmy at Mary Washington to do six 800s. I thought that the rest was supposed to be 2 minutes. I later found out that it was only supposed to be 90 seconds. Not the only mistake I made for the day.

On the warmup, some asshole in a red truck with a Mary Wash faculty permit started laying on his horn as the three of us were running single file along the cars going down Hanover. There was no where else we could have been (besides of course the sidewalk.) But he had the whole other side of the road open and he didn't have to go more than 25 MPH. So he honked and I yelled and he gave me the finger and I yelled some more. He obviously wasn't in too big of a hurry, because he pulled over across from Brokeback Duplex and got out of his truck! This caused a traffic jam as he started yelling at cars to pass him and one car pulled up behind him and didn't leave. So that was funny. Luckily I had on my heart rate monitor so I could see my heart rate jump up to 157 bpm. Not as high as I would have liked, but I didn't stop. I just kept going and told him that he had to share the road and go the speed limit. He yelled inaudible things at us. Justin was, and still is, impressed that he got out of the truck. What was he going to do? Hit us? In broad daylight in public on a busy street? No. Get back in your car dude.

We got back to the track after 3+ miles of warmup. Greg told me not to wear spikes unless it was in the 50s. It was probably 50 or 51 degrees, so I decided against it, not wanting to upset him and all. I jogged over to the track and started stretching quickly. Justin, being patient as always, was trying to get things started. So I rushed the stretch. The Huertas were there doing some sort of tempo workout together on the track.

As I sat there stretching, I looked at my shoes. Odd. One was a lot dirtier than the other. F! One shoe was old and one was new. My left was the older one. I didn't want to take those turns with a busted shoe on the inside leg where my IT band problem was. So I sprinted over to the car to get my spikes. Justin wanted to start without me but didn't, thankfully. So, spikes on and it was go time.

Greg said 37s. So that's what I set out for. 37s, 75s. The first one was a little slow because Justin was so close. He was shooting for 2:40 to my 2:30, so I needed to ignore his presence. He said something to me after the first hundred was 19 and the 200 was 38 to the effect of "you're not running fast enough." I was fine though, just getting used to the lap and the pace. So my first quarter was slow, but then I got on track for a while. I jogged a 200, then back about 50 and to the line just as Justin was getting there to go. I think he started at the same time that I did for the first few, but I lost track. Jimmy was doing the same workout, but much further back. Things were going well. I got a little antsy towards the end, I'm not sure why. Nothing exciting was happening. But I did have too much recovery according to the desired workout. So maybe the appropriate time and I wouldn't have been running 73s and 74s. As far as my heart rate, I was starting them pretty well recovered.

Heart rates, high and low in the sets: (95), 176, (128), 176, (128), 181, (131), 179, (131), 181, (132 ), 181, (106). Fairly consistent. I don't know what any of that means, but it looks good on a graph!

On the last one, I thought that Justin was quitting. He was sitting down on the opposite side of the track. I started yelling at him to not be a quitter. I probably didn't use that word. I'd forgotten that I brought him some shoes to wear for the workout. Streak XCs. He was going to put them on half-way through but I guess he forgot. He put them on for the last 800. He'll wear them at the Battleground Relays.

We finished up, changed shoes and jogged around while Jimmy finished. Then we went for our 2-mile cool down and parted ways. I was pleased with the workout until I realized I was supposed to do less rest. But the spikes felt good, the pace felt fine. 10 days to go...