The Track Doesn't Lie

I made it back to the track today - it's been a long time.  Way too long.  My last attempt at a track workout was Jan-28, and the last time I was able to actually complete a workout was Jan-17 - a solid month ago.

It was good to be back.  Great thing about running on the track - the track doesn't lie, and there are no excuses.  It can't be, "well, I'm not sure the distance was accurate", or "I ran most of the run 'into the wind' ", or "this road/trail was a lot hillier than most".  No we have none of that at the track.  There are no hills, the distance is spot on accurate, and if you've got the wind in your face on one straightaway, then it's at your back on the other - there are no excuses.  

I could have used a couple of excuses today.  Not that it was 'that bad', but I'm clearly not where I was at the peak in mid-January.  The plan today was threshold 1000s - typically I do 5 x 1000m w/ 1-minute breaks, and when I was going well these started around 3:28 and ramped down into the low 3:20s - typically averaging about 3:25.  Today's plan called for times that were a bit slower and taking 90-second rests - but the upshot was that I was going to attempt a little more volume (7 x 1000m)  I figured I'd start at about 3:35 for the first two and then ramp down to about 3:26-3:27.

Started out OK - 3:34, 3:32, 3:28, 3:27, but after another 3:28 on #5, and a 3:27 on #6 I felt like I had had enough.  Again, not 'that bad', but I was hoping #6 would have been close to 3:25 w/ the feeling afterwards that I could go ahead and throw a 7th rep up there at 3:25 again.  I'm sure I could have done another one, probably at 3:25, but it would have taken too much out of me as I have a long run scheduled for tomorrow and that wasn't the point of the workout.

Nonetheless, it's great to be back on the track again.  If I can consistently do my usual two workouts/week, I'm sure those times will come back into range in a couple of weeks.  

After the workout I headed over to the gym to get in a solid upper body lifting session and a few sets of leg presses. (I usually have a heavy leg day early in the week, and a light day later in the week - this was the light day)

Training:

Fri, 2/20:  4-miles @ 6:46 pace  (all I had time for)

Sat, 2/21:  5-miles including 6 x 1000 (3:34, 32, 28, 27, 28, 27) 

Average pace of 1000s - 5:37, ave pace including warm up - 5:50  (w/u mile - 6:42)

PM:  lifting (upper-A, abs, core)