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:
- 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.
- 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)
As Team Oz's community captain, it was my "job" to come up with a weekly team spirit award, so I bought a Wizard of Oz lunch pail. Stop laughing! Here's the idea: Each week, an outstanding participant will be awarded the Spirit Box -- someone who embodies heart, brains, and/or courage. It will be given out at the Saturday run, and inside will be something that represents heart, brains, and/or courage. This could be anything -- a poem, a photo of a personal honoree, some funny tchotchke, etc. Ideally, it will be something that will inspire/motivate the outstanding participant or at least make them laugh and want to keep working hard.
I put something in the Spirit Box yesterday and awarded it to our first recipient, Janice Chan! She's one of our team honorees and has been in remission from Hodgkin's Lymphoma for a year; she's also training to run with the team. Next week, she'll add something to the Spirit Box and I'll award it to someone new. The contents of the box will grow over the season; it'll be like an arsenal of inspiration, motivation and fun for whoever receives it. (And if we outgrow the lunch box, because it's sort of small, I'll get a canvas bag with a Wizard of Oz theme.)GO TEAM!
Our fall team has a name: Team Oz (with a Cause)! Yes, as in “Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.” Why? Because we have brains, heart, and courage! (Hey, it takes a lot to run a marathon and raise money to cure blood-related cancers.) Being that I’m so modest, I won’t mention that I suggested the team name…
OK, I had to set myself up to look good because I certainly had a bit of a short circuit before driving to San Ramon for our coached run on Saturday. In my brilliance, I printed out Coach Al’s email with directions while at work on Friday. When I got into the car to plug the address into my GPS Saturday morning, I looked at the printout, and…no address.
Well, plan B. I can follow directions without a GPS! I scanned the printout to get a sense of where to head. Great idea, except the directions were incomplete – there was no freeway exit! The directions started with me being in San Ramon on Albion Way, wherever the heck that was! Did someone not want me to be at the run?
I fell back on my failsafe and got out the paper map. (Well, the big fat “book” with all the roads in the county.) I found Albion, but it wasn’t in San Ramon. Huh? Not feeling certain I could trust the map, I finally ran back inside, booted up the laptop and made myself a Google map. Took an extra 10 minutes, but at least I didn’t have to frantically call a teammate for directions while en route!
After all that drama, the first run turned out great! loved everyone’s energy and enthusiasm, particularly at 8am. We ran two miles for time – not as a race, but just to get a sense of ability. Since I know my pace, I thought I’d see how fast I could “comfortably” run the two miles. I finished in 17:10; not bad! That’s two minutes per mile faster than my half-marathon pace, so definitely not sustainable, but that wasn’t my goal!
I really enjoyed meeting my new teammates. I tried to introduce myself to as many new faces as possible and to at least learn names (if only for a fleeting moment), as well as what brought everyone to TNT. I’m looking forward to our buddy runs this week to continue to get to know folks.
I posted photos online: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurapayette/sets/72157606757581349. I’ll have to work on my technique, though – most of the images turned out rather far away, but I captured the run!
GO TEAM!
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.
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.
Posts
