Finally, Wednesday night!  I think people get excited for Wednesday night for a lot of reasons but I’m guessing a track workout isn’t the most popular reason.  But to each is own.

My brain had been confused all week thinking Monday was Tuesday and Tuesday was Wednesday, so when Wednesday finally did hit I was excited.

Normally I’d be pretty nervous to hit the track after some time off or a less than excellent race, but not this week.  This week there were no expectations, just a girl easing her way back into some fast running.

I looked a the website a few times this week to get an idea of what we’d be running but not luck, nothing posted (there was nothing posted for the previous week either).  Boo.

I warmed up on my own again and kept it short (just 2 miles not 3).  It looked like a small group and there were not many familiar faces.  I was just hoping there’d be people to run with since our group had been pretty thin lately.

The workout surprised me; it’s not one I’d seen before.  It was a combo workout with 2 x 1 mile and then a 15 minute jog finishing up with 4 x 200m.

People who were racing on Friday (Fremont 5k) would skip the 200m reps.

I couldn’t really hear our coach’s instructions; I’m guessing these were supposed to be at 5k pace.  I haven’t run 5k in over a year and I was coming off a break so I figured I’d jump into group 5 and go from there…

Two of my running besties arrived and we decided we’d run together.  Group 5 was running 6:12s and after much debate I convinced everyone to just give it a go.  5A was running in the 6:30 range so people were thinking of backing off to 6:20ish but our coach writes the paces based on who’s in the group so I opted to trust him and give it go.

And go we did.

The first lap was speedy because the first 200 is always a sprint when all the pace groups are together.  We came through the first 400m in 92 (our goal was 93) but I knew we’d slowed way down the second half:  our first 200m was 44.

My friend Kelsey knew too and she started to pull away from the group trying to keep pace.  I found myself in that moment where you play it safe or trust your body.

So I swung wide and went with her.  (Okay she stayed ahead of me but you get the idea).  We maintained our pace through the mile.

I felt surprisingly good.  My legs were a bit tired from weights but I felt like I had some spring back in my step (thank you spring mechanics).

We jogged for 3 minutes and gave it another go.

My plan was to just keep running based on feel and I let the group know that since this rep could be a little faster I don’t want to mess-up anyone’s pacing.

We were off and by 200m I took over the lead settling into my pace (or close to it) from the rep before.  I just kept focusing on one 400 and then the next.  I picked up the pace for the last 2 quarters but they didn’t feel faster.  I still felt relaxed and I felt good after we crossed the finish line.

12-15 minute jog later (fully recovered) we were ready for 200s.  Our groups was supposed to run 45 seconds but since we were running closer to 4A I figured we’d be good at 43s.

We lined up and I was dead last with the group pulling away from me.  I didn’t hear our coaches instructions on these but I could tell they weren’t supposed to be a full-out sprint.

So this former 800m runner swallowed her pride and settled in:  38, hmm that looks like 3A’s time, but I was still a full 2 seconds behind everyone which is a much bigger gap than it sounds.

We jogged a 200 and were off again, 40, then 38 and finished with a 37.  They were faster than they were supposed to be but I still felt relaxed so I went with it.

It was SO NICE to be back!  And though it poured on Tuesday and Thursday like the flood was coming, Wednesday was a perfect evening complete with that fiery big ball in the sky.

Taking the rest of this week easy, but SO happy to be back.

run pretty run fast