Life in the Big Ring: Track

The first track workout of the season (long season) was last night. We are officially off and running (no pun intended but I was talking about track so...)! Starting track workouts feels like the start of the on-season but it really isn't. As I have come to learn in the last couple of years, there is no official "off" season. Only a non-racing season. My last 5k was in December and that even feels like forever ago. So many things have happened since then, or at least one major thing.

But I digress....So track tonight was just a continued beginning of the training journey. But a beginning nonetheless. I had the same nervous tummy but I planned my meals correctly so I knew I wouldn't (or at least hoped) blow chunks on the track. The workout was simple: a 2 mile time trial. I knew going in that PIC Sonja wouldn't be there but I was hoping my other PIC Bethie would be. She wasn't. Which just meant I was on my own and would have to figure out my pace and everything else on my own. This is a good thing as sometimes I rely too heavily on other people's paces, energy and thoughts. I positioned myself right behind the fast boys (they were talking about running around a 6 minute pace) and I ignored Steve when he wanted me to come up front. I felt good about my position and knew it was aggressive for me.

We all started and I let a couple of guys out in front of me with the intention of catching them after 1 mile. I'm not sure what our pace was at the 200 but it was quick, fast enough for me to get that feeling of dread - oh shit I have to keep this pace! But I gathered myself, fought the panic feelings, relaxed and got control of my breathing. 1 lap down, 7 to go.....Funny thing is, after all these long rides and runs, it was all I could do to tell myself, self you only have to do this for 10 more minutes - that's it! And it still seemed like an unreasonable amount of time. I missed the pace call at 400 and 800 but was around 5:00 at the 1200. Of course, since my HR was around 170 I was unable to do the math and the first mile came in at 6:43. Hmmmmm, wasn't my fastest mile last year a 6:37??? Where's Beth I need to check with her on that.....oh man that means this last mile could be brutal......I passed the 2 guys that started ahead of me with 1200 to go, got lapped by the fast boys and all of a sudden I just had 400 left with a pace call of 11-50 something. My brain got to work and figured I could make the 14 minute cut-off for the Group 1 "qualification" with just a 2 minute effort on the last lap......I came in at 13:31 which I believe comes out to a 6:48 second mile, so I didn't die off too badly. Not a bad way to start the season!

And, if you call this good news, I'm now "officially" in Group 1 at track. I can honestly say that I never thought that would happen. Oh joy, I can now look forward to getting crushed weekly at track....it's gonna hurt, true, but I am psyched!

With the good comes the bad. As Steve-O said, at least you have your run and your bike.....that's right we went to the pool to see how I've done on my stroke work over the last couple of months. And, there has been no change. None. Crap-ola. So much for that sub-21 swim.