The e-mail went out last Saturday from Paul asking if anyone was interested in joining him for a 6 mile tempo run from McAlpine. I saw the address list and knew for sure that there would be some stud and studettes showing up! The timing would work out perfectly for me as I had a wrestling tournament in the mountains that afternoon. Since Paul M. said that he would be doing some track work at Charlotte Christian after the tempo, I decided that I would park at Christian so that I could make one of my now infamous getaways after the tempo!
So I park at Charlotte Christian and as I'm running down Sardis I glance over to my right and see no one in the McAlpine lot? I keep running towards Paul's house (we wouldn't want him to have to drive anywhere...Ha!) and then at 8:29am I see Paul with this frantic, abnormal (albeit highly effective) gate coming towards me! Of course me, with my sarcastic New Jersey humor ask..."so where is everybody?"
We run into the park and head to the starting line of the course where we would start the tempo. You know when you are warming up with a 7 minute pace effort that this is serious. Right before we started I mentioned to Paul that I would be happy/satisfied with "36 minutes." You just never know if your treadmill runs and all of the base work will translate.
Off we go! We got out well and I made it to the turnaround at the 2 mile mark about 1 second behind Paul. I pulled even with him at the 3 mile mark and extended my hand just to let him know that I was going to be sticking around. His hand touched my hand. From miles 3 to 4 he got his 1 second back (truth be told, Paul was working a lot less than I was) and that is a tribute to his fitness level and his powerful engine. Paul kept me 5 meters at bay for the remainder of the run and I ended up hitting 34:45 for the 6 miles! I was tickled. Paul continued on to his track portion of the workout and I went to work...
I managed a nice, solo, cold and hilly 20 miler early Sunday morning to get yet another 80 plus miles for the week. I am enjoying this base building block of training which will continue on through February, at which time I will introduce some speed training into my programme. This will include 50's, 100's, 150's and 200's as I will still keep my base up along with my weekly long run.
Question: Please list some of your running goals for 2011?
Wow, Steve. That was a heck-of-a training run. I cannot wait to see how it translates to the roads. You are going to be smoking fast.
ReplyDeleteRemember 2 things Bill: First, it was just 1 workout and, more importantly, you save the hard efforts for the races...as you know very well! Best at Boston...
ReplyDelete8 miles of the same a week on Saturday Steve! Sub 48!
ReplyDeleteSounds great! Thanks for including...
ReplyDeleteP.S.- "...and London!"