Track with the Lizards…..

What was I thinking???? We’ll come back to that question later….
Tonight was my first meeting with Rick Lovett the coach of the Red Lizard running team. We started with a 1.5 mile slow warm up. During this time he explained the do’s and don’t of track along with the entire lingo. I swear at some point he switched and spoke Japanese on me. L, M, S, pace? 600’s, 1000’s, 300’s, Floating? Recovery? My oh my I’m so confused. I explained my triathlete background and all this track stuff was somewhat new. At least running fast in some kind of structure in a big group. He advised me to just hang back with him and I’d be fine. Or so I thought. Post warm we stretched a bit and he went on to explain the workout. I guess the last few weeks have been semi-easy for the club and tonight they were kicking it up a notch. Why did I have to choose this to be my first night? So here was the workout layout
1 x 400 (200 recovery)
1 x 600 (200 recovery)
1 x 1000 (400 recovery)
1 x 600-600 (300 recovery)
1 x 600-400-600

At L Pace.

He explained L pace at the beginning but my mind was wrapped around these 400’s, 600’s, white lines, in’s and out’s, 5,6,7’s, I kind of lost all the lingo along with my pace. So L pace I think means 5k pace, I could be wrong….who really knows? The Lizards know that’s who…and I have yet to become a lizard, frankly right now I feel like a frog….but that’s another story. We do a 100 meter strides with 100 recoveries x 4 and then start the workout. My first 400 I went to fast. I didn’t really feel like I did but Rick said I did and later I learned he was right. The 600 weren’t too bad but I was starting to feel the pain in my lunges, which I shouldn’t be feeling yet. The 1000 sucked ass, in fact I think I only made it to an 800 before I took my 400 recovery. I lost Rick but he quickly came back for me. I was ready to be done but he said I just needed to pace myself better, which he was right. I then followed up with the 2 600’s. Those were just not fun. I started the 1200 broken out and opted to cool down after 400. Yes I am THAT weak. Goodlord, that workout handed me my tail. Rick of course came back for me. I told him I was done and just want to cool down a few laps…so I did. During this time I thought about my race goals and aspirations. I want to improve my run but I don’t want to be a runner primarily. I want to be a triathlete. I thought about this workout and wondered how I would fit this type of training in my weekly calendar. After realizing I needed to cut the intensities down to one per week how would this fit in? This was high motherfricking intensity. What about my time trails on the bike? Speaking of, I have one of those tomorrow. Thankfully it’s only an hour ride with 4 x 2 min time trials. Shouldn’t kill me, but it will be intense at points. The other thing I thought about was my place in this group. I didn’t feel like a runner, I didn’t fit in with these uber fast people. My 5k’s a 7:15 pace, these people are running 4:30’s -6:30’s. I am nowhere near that. I’m not a quitter yet I allowed this workout to defeat me. What does that say about me? I don’t know but it’s something that will be on my mind for the next few days until I come to the answer. When I do I’ll be sure to let you know. As my thoughts were spilling out all over the track during my cool down some guy made an interruption. I don’t recall his name I just remember him running by me during the speed sessions and thinking I was just passed buy the wind. We chatted a bit. He said it was his first workout of the season (yea, real stab in the side) and asked how I liked it. I confessed I felt out of place and running was not my only focus. I’d like to improve it yes but I still have to work on not falling of Cadence as much. He was kind and encouraged me to join in other team runs and to keep up the good effort. Post run I was speaking with Rick and he said the guy I was talking with was inches away from an Olympic position….well that made me feel better. I guess. Rick said he’d follow up with email on his thoughts about my training. We both know I went to fast too soon. I’m a bit, ok let’s not sugar coat it here, I’m way over zealous and need a lot of help pacing. I’m looking forward to reading his thoughts…
I’m tired and going to bed now….goodnight.

2 mile warm up
.5 mile strides
1.75 mile speed work
.75 mile cool down

5.5 miles