Tuesday's Track Workout, or Don't Do What I Do

This season we're alternating hill repeats with track workouts, versus following blocks of training like during the spring. So Tuesday (9-9-08) was track at Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon.

Two things about the location:

1. It's ridiculously far! I left the office at 4:10pm and arrived at 6:10pm after BARTing to Lafayette and driving the remaining 18+ miles. This gave me just enough time to find the gym restroom (took a while -- the school is pretty big) and change out of my work clothes.
2. The track is really nice! As is the school -- it's only two years old. (In fact, the restrooms are nicer than the ones at work. ) But seriously, the track felt like a pillow under my feet. And the football field itself is one of those newfangled artificial deals with tiny circular rubber pieces that look like real dirt. The only problem is that they stick to your pants and don't easily brush off.
   

The workout itself was kind of fun. We started with core training. Then, after an 800m warm-up, we did a pyramid at tempo pace (about 8 out of 10 in terms of level of exertion): 400m (followed by 200m recovery/brisk walking), 600m (200m recovery), 800m (300m recovery), another 800m (300m recovery), 600m (200m recovery), and 400m. We followed it all up with an 800m cool down.

The numbers were easy enough to remember, but I managed to screw them up. Instead of running the first 800m, I stopped after 600m, thinking I had gone 800m. Only once I realized that none of the people I had been running with were around me did I put two and two together. So I ran 900m on the next leg to partially make up for the missed 200m. It put me off on my own part of the track for a while, and I confused peple by running when they were walking and vice versa. I just kept yelling over my shoulder, "Don't do what I do! I screwed up!" Yeah, I'm a great role model. :-)
(See more photos)