MITHACAL Milers 2019-2020
I missed the time trial due to an evening conflict—and honestly, I was glad. As the slowest in my group, I knew it wouldn’t affect my training much anyway.
Week 1
I missed the time trial because I had an evening conflict. To be perfectly candid, I was really happy about this! I am in the slowest group anyway, so I knew my time trial wasn’t going to really affect my training (except maybe put me behind the slowest group).
For week #1, Adam sent out an email with our workout. I had forgotten he did that and didn’t check my email before we headed up. Scott asked on the way if I knew my times for the evening. I looked at him cluelessly as I realized I had missed an email. No concern I said, I know other people in my group will have checked the email.
We arrived early and ran 10 minutes on the track before starting the warm-ups. It is always nicer to arrive early and have that time to run. Last time we did this I felt like we were always late. We did our familiar stretches that I really enjoy and broke into our pace groups.
Our workout for the evening was a ladder. We had 3 sets of 200, 200, 400 with equal rest in between each set. We ran at R pace. That meant for us that our goal was 53 seconds for each 200. The trouble was that I wore my Apple watch instead of a stopwatch. It has a stopwatch feature, but you can’t also have the gps running in the background. I wanted to record my distance, so I relied on others to record our timing. This worked great until our timing person moved up to the next faster group. Most of us were in the similar boat of not having a watch or having an Apple watch so we made it work with rough approximations, people taking turns looking etc. Our general problem was that we were a little fast which is better than being a little too slow.
I really enjoyed the workout. It was fun to run with friends again even though it was hard! I get really scared before a repeat starts and then you just have to run and can’t think about anything but staying up with the group. I love the recovery time!
Week 2
The workout
The 2nd week I took time to READ my email from Adam about our evening workout. This evening we’d be doing a ladder workout:
200 at R pace followed by 200 rest
400 at R pace followed by 400 rest
600 at I pace followed by 400 rest
800 at I pace followed by 400 rest
600 at I pace followed by 400 rest
400 at R pace followed by 400 rest
200 at R pace followed by 200 rest
I got the paces for the total distance each time and wrote them on my hand and then borrowed a watch from Xander to wear on my right arm. The Apple watch doesn’t work well for intervals. It was weird to wear a watch on my right hand, and I couldn’t figure out the split function on it, so I had trouble with pacing on the multi-lap ladders.
Excuse me Adam
We were standing as a group after finishing our warm-ups and Adam verbally gave us our workout. He misspoke, telling us we had a 200 rest after the longer intervals. I looked down at my hand where I had written enough short hand to know the rest distance and then tried to decide if I had made an error when writing from the email. Adam’s wife, Tonya noticed my confusion just as I said aloud that I thought we had a 400 recovery each time after the 200. Our little group talked about it and then Tonya got Adam’s attention. We settled on the 400 recovery and Adam said we could all thank me for reading my email. I felt like, “oh my goodness I hope that is what it actually said!” Caroline also said she remembered reading this and so did a few others so I felt pretty good that this was correct.
Warming up
Scott and I arrived at 6:40 so we had time to warm-up almost alone for 10 minutes before stretches. After this, we did our group stretching and then the entire group did the 10 minute warm-up. I forgot about that piece and when everyone started running I asked them what they were doing. Tonya replied, “we’re doing our 10 minute warm-up.” Oh yeah, that’s right! I joined in. My friend Elizabeth was at Mithacal Milers for the first time, so it was fun to tell her about what to expect as we ran for the 10 minutes. She shared that she was nervous about the speed and I told her that I was sure she’d love it while sharing that I’m always nervous about it.
More about nerves
About a month ago I listened to a Tim Ferriss podcast titled, Adam Grant - The man who does everything. He shared his early struggles with lecturing for students. He was anxious. So anxious that virtually all of his evaluations mentioned that he was the most anxious professor they’d ever seen. However instead of staying this way he gave himself a dose of immersion therapy and started guest lecturing everywhere he could as a guest lecturer. He became singularly focused on exposing himself to the opportunity for growth. He shared that our bodies can handle only so much anxiety and eventually we will adjust. Somehow during this exposure to constant lecturing he became comfortable. He still gets little butterflies but he no longer experiences full blown anxiety.
Mithacal milers is that way for me. When we first started this two years ago I would read the workout emails and want to throw up. I was so afraid. I did the workouts, but with active fear for the entire warm-up until at least the mid point of the workout. Last night as I was verbalizing how I felt about these workouts to Elizabeth I realized that my body and mind have adjusted. The fear is abating. The nerves are still there but they are calmer. Reading the email is less daunting. I have come to enjoy the pattern of each evening; run and chat comfortably with friends during the warm-up, work hard during the reps and then enjoy each recovery chance to chat and connect with fellow runners. Adam is right that the body can only handle so much anxiety and it eventually adjusts.
Final mileage and thoughts
I ended up with 5.6 miles. My training plan called for 6 of speed (I know Mithacal Milers will average me from 5-7 so this was perfect). Scott and I came home to a delicious dinner of homemade pizza and salad. The kids were sweet. Elizabeth made dinner for all of us and they both waited until 8:40 to eat!! The only downside of this plan was that I literally ate dinner and went to bed 20 minutes later. It was hard to fall asleep.
Strava tracks
I think it is so cool that I can set my watch to indoor running and capture the workout.
Week 3
As is typical we got our email with our workout early in the day. I read it and thought, “this workout is going to kill me.” Whenever repeats go over a 600 it is really challenging. Our evening called for either 800s or 1000s depending on what my group felt was the best fit. I’m in the middle category so technically I should have been at the 1000, but Adam also said we should be in the 3-4 minute range for speed. With that, at our I pace for 7 minute milers we landed at 3:30+ for the 800. Moving up to a 1000 would put us over 4 minutes.
Scott and I arrived at 6:40ish and I got a mile of running in before the group started. At one point I took a water break and did a full lap before re-starting my watch which is always frustrating! The group arrived and we did our warm-ups. I enjoyed chatting with my friend Elizabeth as we went through the stretch sequence. As we warmed up I noticed the the group was smaller than typical. Tonya is still out with a sore foot and Becca and her team were not there. I still can’t use Xander’s stop watch effectively so I was really glad that Caroline was there. She’s great with her watch!
Our workout went really well. After another 10 minute official warm-up we started. We were able to hit our goal of 55/56 second splits. The group chatted about dinners and kids and fitness goals during our lovely rest time and we got to know each other better. I left more energized than when I arrived and super pleased that I hit 6 miles with the evening (that’s what I put into the marathon training plan for Mithacal Milers nights).
Week 4
The workout
Early in the day Adam sent his weekly workout information to us. Scott and I aren’t doing the Hartshorne Masters’ Mile this year so our plan called for a 200 - 200 - 400 ladder at R pace. This didn’t sound too bad, so even though I was afraid I knew it would be a fine evening.
Nutrition and warming up
Last week I made the mistake of eating a bowl of Brussels sprouts an hour before heading out. This time I was smarter. I enjoyed some Greek yogurt with pecans at 4 pm. Scott and I had to do an errand before running so we left pretty early, arriving up at Barton before 6:45. We have been arriving early each week and getting in a pre-warm-up before the official after stretching warm-up. This week when I read the workout I noticed a question thread. Someone asked if it started at 7 or if one should arrive early.
When we arrived this time everyone who was already there was standing near the track. As we entered I heard a loud shot. The track team was in full practice mode. They were practicing starts with the gun, sprinting, stretching and lifting. I asked, “Is this one of those times we have to respect the track and wait?” Yup, we all agreed that we had to wait. So we grabbed drinks and took bathroom breaks before hitting the track for a warm-up.
Our group and the ladder
Before the evening began Scott showed me how you can double tap on the Apple watch to record splits. He had learned this during the week and thought it would be helpful. I left Xander’s watch home. Last week I had worn both, but every time I pushed on Xander’s watch to start a split it would bump against my Apple watch and trigger the SOS call. I had to abort an emergency call several times. I didn’t want to risk that again! I was excited about the ability to track the splits and visioned myself yelling out our times as we looped.
The group was small this evening as both Caroline and Tonya weren’t there. I was glad I had this new ability to do the split shout out and practiced hitting the watch. Yup this would be perfect. Our group convened and I shared that our R pace was 46 seconds.
Say what??
The first 200 came in at 47 and change. Not bad. Then our 2nd 200 was near 50. We couldn’t hold the pace for the 400. Each lap was 52 - 54 range. And, I wasn’t really able to hit the watch and look much. So much for my shouting out splits for my group. I was disappointed. I kept wondering why we couldn’t hit the times and then I realized - our R pace is actually 53 seconds for a 200.
I let the crew know as soon as I realized. They were very gracious. They all had eyebrows raised when I said 46 but I must have sounded so confident that they just trusted me. Once we started our second set things went better. We hit the paces (I think) and we enjoyed our recoveries. Each time we were recovering with an equal distance with a slow jog.
3 sets or 4?
Most of us decided on 4 sets for the evening and we wanted to stick with that plan. However, at the end of set 3 I looked at the clock Adam had brought. It was 7:56 pm. I knew we’d be expected to be cooling down soon and I noticed that the track was almost empty. I let people know and we agreed to get as much of our last set done as possible. We started our 200 and did our 200 of rest. Then the track was literally empty. People were mostly done cooling down. Elizabeth and I ran a lap and a bit together for a short cool down and then called it quits. The group was stretching and Scott and I had to get home for Elizabeth’s dinner night.
Time for curry
Our family has tried something for awhile now - each member gets a dinner night to cook. It worked successfully for a full year and then Elizabeth went to college. We dropped it for Xander’s cross country season because things were so crazy, planning to start again in November. Then, November and December were crazy with holidays so we bumped it again. Now, Elizabeth is transferred to Ithaca College and she is living with us. We brought dinner nights back and this night is Elizabeth’s night. One of her favorite things to make is any curry. Usually she makes a homemade curry paste, but today she planned to try out the canned curry paste for her base. I was very hungry and consequently excited to get home to enjoy dinner! We’ve been keeping track of the meals everyone makes in a quick little blog called Dawson Dinners
Did the repeat setting work?
It was a pain and unreliable but maybe it recorded and I just wasn’t able to look quickly enough? When I went into the watch and looked I realized I only manage to split things a few times. It wasn’t successful at all. I think the speed makes it challenging to properly do the double tap. I may try again next week and I may actually take time to figure out Xander’s watch and just wear it on a different wrist than my Apple watch. A couple of our splits were recorded and ended up in the ballpark for what our goals were.
Week 6
Too scared to read the email
Every week Adam sends us an email with the workout details. Typically I read it carefully and sometimes I even write the paces on my hand. For some reason I just couldn’t make myself open it this week. I was afraid our distances could be longer than 800s. Anything longer than a 600 indoors is really challenging! As we drove I said, “I didn’t read the email because I was scared. Should I be scared?” Silence. “Are the repeats longer than 800s?” More silence. Oh no! Scott finally replied. 1200s followed by 200s. Most of the rest of our car ride was quiet as I contemplated the upcoming workout.
Laurel came back
Last week was my friend Laurel’s first time going. It turned out to be the first week we missed. She mentioned she was in Tonya’s group so I knew that meant that Tonya’s foot recovered and she was back. When I walked into Barton, Laurel was one of the first people I saw. We chatted about the distances and I shared the email story with her. She said, “I think it is 1000 repeats followed by 400s.” Hmmm. 1000 is better than 1200s. 400s are not better than 200s though. We chatted along and pretty soon it was time to warm-up. Whatever the workout, the time had come to just do it.
Adam sets the stage
After our 10 minutes of jogging and 10 minutes of dynamic stretching we gathered for the start. Adam verbally shared the workout. Two 1000s at T pace followed by 4x200s at R pace. Laurel and I exchanged a smile. Both she and Scott had gotten half of the workout right! Soon we gathered with the 7 minute mile crew and within minutes we were off on our first 1000. There wasn’t much time to think.
T pace is nice
Our T pace called for 1 minute for a 200. That was pretty lovely. We fell into a nice crew with Caroline leading us around the track. Tonya shouted out if we were too fast or too slow and we all managed the first 1000 quite well. The 2nd 1000 was not terrible either. Suddenly I felt a little silly for being afraid to open my email. The 200s were challenging but short and before we knew it, the time on the clock was 7:51. We were supposed to get two sets in and with the entire workout wrapping around 8 I knew that was a tall order.
You are what you repeatedly do
As we finished up our 200s of set one my mind flashed to how nervous I had been just a little bit before this workout. All of that vanished as I started to run. Continuing to expose myself to this type of group workout is improving my running. I may still be afraid of the workouts, but we all are in some way. We come together for the comfort of the group, the push from the group and the chance to improve and maintain our running. We sometimes struggle with being tired from work, an injury or even a small nagging pain. We all have to decide when to pull back, when we can keep up and when we can’t or shouldn’t keep up. On this rather warm February evening, I said to myself, “you are what you repeatedly do.” It is good that I dragged myself to this energizing workout!
800s it is
As we finished our last 200 recovery lap I found myself with Bill, Elizabeth and Laurel. The rest of our crew was right behind us but Tonya and Caroline were across the track starting one more recovery lap. We waved frantically at them and they cut back across the track for us. We steeled ourselves for our 2nd set. We knew T pace would feel more challenging this time. Tonya led with, “Caroline and I would like to do 800s this time.” She went on to explain that she felt like she was unraveling a bit. Tonya has struggled with a foot injury this winter and her mileage is down from her typical weekly load. I mentioned that it was already 7:51 so it seemed wise to cut one lap off anyway in hopes of finishing the entire 2nd set. We all quickly agreed that sticking together and dropping to 800s sounded great. John confirmed we’d still be at T pace (not faster) and we were off. Again the 800s were uneventful and rather meditative. It feels nice to push your pace past a casual run pace but not so fast that you feel like you are dying.
Commencing running
I love what happens when a group of people comes together. We all don our group personalities and sometimes those personalities are different from our solo running personas. When I run intervals on my own and it says to do a recovery jog of equal distance I almost always end up walking or shorting the distance. In a group I’m a rule follower and it turns out that I’m also a leader for others. As we ended each 200 we were expected to jog a 200 cool down. Our group typically had to quickly avoid a crew of fast runners as we ended and we’d find ourselves walking slowly for a bit. Each time as we rounded the curve I said, “commencing running” and everyone would follow. By the end it was a cute little joke.
The group
As you spend week after week running with a crew of people you start to depend on them. You look forward to the casual conversations and connections you make every Tuesday night. It becomes something to brighten up cold winter evenings. Tonight I really wasn’t jazzed about running. It would have taken almost nothing to talk me out of going, but as with every week I was completely energized when I arrived. My group is fun and committed and I enjoy running with them. As we started our first 200 of the last set one of our group members who isn’t doing too many weekly miles said he was going to peel off. We convinced him to do one 200 with us. I seized the moment and asked if we could stop for a quick photo after 3/4 of our cool down loop. I explained that I blog about this group and it would be fun. Everyone was up for it so we got our photo. After the photo we started right into our 2nd 200. I looked to my left and he was still running with us. I smiled and said, “you are still here!” He replied, “you guys are making it too hard to leave.” That is the power that is in the group. We all bring each other up and we accomplish more than we would if we were completing intervals on our own.
That’s a wrap!
It was especially late this week. Scott and I skipped out on the cool down stretches (again). I feel bad about that, but we can’t really eat before the workout and when you go to bed at 9 it is hard to get home at 9 and start dinner! So we raced out and got home around 8:40 to find that Elizabeth and Xander had heated up dinner for us. They chatted with us as we shared our evening and they were able to share details from their respective days. Soon we all headed off to bed to recharge for the next day. Another great speed workout is in the books!!
Week 7
The workout
Selecting the workout
When we arrived, Tonya had the workout on her hand. She had taken the optional drop to the two 400s and the four 200s that Adam suggested for our group. My mileage is over 20 miles per week, but this is one piece of being in a group. We had the choice to stick with the plan of the dropped intervals or split into two. Our crew is comfortable together and I know I didn’t want to split off. I didn’t see anyone else eager to split either so we stayed as a whole group doing.
3 seconds per 200 or per 600?
Our R pace is 53 seconds and Tonya interpreted Adam’s email to mean we add 3 seconds for the entire 600 so she had 54 written on her hand for our 600s. We had all read it as 3 seconds per 200 so we called Adam over to inquire. After some discussion we all settled on 3 seconds per 600. (later when I talked with Scott he said they interpreted it as 3 seconds per 200 but ultimately they ended up 2 seconds slower than R pace per loop).
The 600s
I had a really busy day at work and then went home and baked for Emoticakes, made a couple of parent phone calls for teaching and headed straight out. I hadn’t really processed the workout until I got there so I didn’t have time to be anxious or stressed about this. After 1000s last week these felt so nice! I settled into my spot right behind Caroline and just enjoyed the loops. Since I still haven’t sorted out my watch situation I was extra grateful that both Caroline and Tonya were there. They both like pacing us and are very good at it!
The 400s
I admit I was sad we dropped to two of these but the prospect of breaking from the group didn’t appeal to me. The 400s were fun! We did these at R pace (53) and struggled only a little with pacing. The first set we hit 50 and 54 respectively for the 200s and by the 2nd set we were on track. One thing about having full recovery in between is that you really struggle to contain the speed at the end.
And finally the 200s
These were great fun! It is so awesome to start with the longest distance and go DOWN for the ladder, never having to return back UP. I was happy as a lark as we completed each 200. I loved how everyone chatted away during our very slow recovery laps and then when we hit the start line it was just an abrupt end and “GO” we all just ran. That is one of the best things about this group workout.
Everyone has their strengths
At the start when we talked about pace John said he probably couldn’t hit the 600 pace we were going for. We had a long tail for the 600s because when you don’t hit the pace for that distance it becomes visually obvious. However, with the full 600 recovery jog we were all together by the end of recovery for each set. The tail was shorter for the 400s and the 200s were so fun because all the spots shifted. People have their strengths and people settle into their grooves. Tonya was having a hard night at the beginning but by the 2nd 400 she said aloud, “I hit my groove!” John was crazy fast for our 200s. As we were in our cool down run Elizabeth said that this week was so much harder than last week at virtually the same time that I said it was so much easier than last week. It is so interesting how we all have such different perceptions of the same workout and different strong and weak times.
What is the point of all this?
One of our group members asked midway through why we had to hit these paces. He’s new to the concept of speed running and he had two eager group members in Tonya and me both ready to explain. We were both so excited to share our experiences that we found ourselves talking over each other on the short recovery laps. Tonya has been doing this 4 years and she shared that her improvement has been as much mental as physical, though she pointed out that the Jack Daniels’ speed approach is proven effective. This is only my 2nd year, but I pointed out similar benefits mentally. I used to dread going on a Tuesday night so much that I was stressed all day at work. Now I mostly look forward to it and am not nearly as anxious! Another takeaway for me is that I’m so used to thinking I’m the worst person in any group. I’m having to come to terms with the fact that I’m really not a bad runner. I also have come to recognize that while there isn’t actually a best and a worst to begin with, I don’t fall into the category of “worst” in a running situation. Everyone deals with not wanting to do something but knowing they are totally capable and I’m no exception.
The Strava report
Mostly people are using splits on their watches and actually recording our speed, but I’m just recording this on my Apple watch as a treadmill workout to capture distance. It is interesting how with the fast and slow running alternated we end up with a pretty slow overall mile pace (I don’t ever pause the watch) and almost always hit around 5.5 miles for the evening.
And the after!
When I was baking after school my husband came into my kitchen and said, “I want to go out with you.” I said, “I’d like that too, but Xander just offered to make dinner.” He left and I went back to baking. Xander popped upstairs a few minutes later looking for some baking scraps. “I heard dad say he wants to go out. What are you guys going to do?” I said, “You could always make some pasta with meatballs and not have to cook a nice dinner.” Xander is ALWAYS game to have a treat of meatballs. He hopped right on that one. “Oh yes that sounds wonderful! I’m going to go start my dinner.” He quickly bounded downstairs.
So Viva it was. Arriving at Viva at 8:40 on a Tuesday it so different from a crowded Friday evening. We ran into our friends Jess and Joel at the bar and chatted for awhile before settling into a window booth. We agreed on NO margaritas and no chips/salsa/guac as an appetizer. We knew sleep was too important on a Tuesday evening to consider a drink or too much food that close to bedtime! Our food was out fast and we enjoyed every minute of the chance to catch up after a really busy day.
Week 9
Scott left for a business trip to NYC early Monday morning. Our Honda Pilot has a flat tire so I drove him to the bus stop and then headed back home to work. As we headed for him to board the Cornell bus he asked if I planned to go to MITHACAL Milers. “I’m not sure,” I said. But I was thinking it was probably the most efficient way to get mileage in and would be a much more fun evening than just running steady state solo or trying to do the intervals on cold, wet roads. I decided I would go.
The workout
Ever since the one week I was too afraid to look at our workout, I’ve braved opening my email. It really is easier to know what is coming than to be in the dark. This week’s workout sounded tough. It included a 1200 at I pace. However it started at the max distance and went down. I typically do really well with this type of workout.
It’s a small one
Our 7 minute mile crew is normally a large crew. I arrived just a few minutes before 7 and almost no one was there. I saw my friend Bill standing alone. “Oh no you are alone?” I said to him. I’m sure he was thrilled with my less than excited to see him welcome. “Where’s Elizabeth?” He replied that she had gone to the bathroom but she was definitely running. “Whew.” I headed to the bathroom too and by the time I came back we had a crew of 5. Ok this was manageable. My friend Tonya looked at us and said, “thank you for coming.” I was feeling the same gratitude toward this group. I rely on them week in and week out. We push each other to make it through the workouts. It is challenging but worth the challenge.
And we’re off
We agreed that for our 2 minute rest we’d kind of amble vs trying to finish a slow lap. If our fast lap pace is 59 seconds it makes sense it would take us more than 2 minutes to do a recovery lap. Then as Adam sent the pace groups off it was our turn before we knew it. We were 5 steady runners - no long tail meant no extra recovery time. We completed our 1200 about 6 seconds too fast (1 second per lap) so that was pretty good! Our first rest felt blissful and soon we were into our 1000. I found these first two intervals fun, almost easy actually. I’ve come to enjoy the meditative nature of this running.
Thank you to Garmin owners
Two of our crew members have Garmin watches that do a great job with splits. It lets them easily update us on how we are doing with our time. Every time Tonya yells out, “1 minute fast” I think “thank GOD she and Caroline have watches that can pace us!” My Apple watch just doesn’t work for this. I still have my Tom Tom around but it stopped updating properly and basically just died. Every weekend I consider pulling it out to see if it could help and then I just cross my fingers that one of these ladies will show up to the practice. So far it has happened all but one night. That one night I was pacing and let’s just say it was good that our workout was an easy one to pace!
Low mileage
Our decision to just stroll around for recovery did cut our mileage back a bit. That and the fact that it took us right up til a bit past 8 to finish the workout. I left with only 4.5 miles instead of my typical 5.5, but I was happy with the effort! It was a hard workout.
Calling Scott
As I hopped into the car I texted Scott. I meant to say, “if you are done with karaoke call me.” What it auto corrected to say was, “if you are out of Katie me call me.” Yikes. Soon he called and was polite enough not to mention my crazy text. His work function was just wrapping up and I was heading home to dinner. His call was a nice break from my NPR One coronavirus update. We chatted about our respective workouts (he did his interval work Monday night in NYC) and I shared the really awesome thing I learned from my crew that evening. Apparently you only need a permit at Cornell until 5 pm and after that most lots are available without a permit. We typically park in the parking garage unless the students are on break. I was REALLY excited to learn this!!
Week 10
The workout
So for our group that means 56 seconds for each 200 and then a 400 that isn’t too slow! Scott and I talked about it on the way and we really should shoot for between 4-5 sets. Ideally 5 would be good, but realistically I knew we’d hit 4.
Nearing the end
It is March so the program is starting to dwindle a little As Adam noted last night, “it’s starting to lose people.” It makes complete sense. It is getting warmer, and next week we change time so it will still be light at 7 pm. I had listed this evening as a rest day in my plan and couldn’t remember why. When Scott mentioned that “this was supposed to be a rest day” we realized why. I had thought it wrapped up by now.
So, our group last week was small and it looked at first like this week would be smaller. It didn’t turn out to be that way though. Several people who were missing last week were back and our crew looked to be about 7 or 8 people. I say “looked to be” because we were not really together once we got going. Over the course of each 800 we spread out a fair amount, so literally we were on the start line together and then formed a long tail of runners.
Timing disasters
One key person was missing this evening. Caroline has been our pacer for the last couple of weeks. Tonya has also had a proper watch and she’s been a secondary pacer. Tonight with Caroline gone I assumed Tonya would take the lead until Tonya said she left her watch home. Elizabeth doesn’t wear a watch and most others have either nothing or something like I do, an Apple watch or regular watch that doesn’t really do what we need it to do. John has a proper watch but he pointed out he was going to be toward the back so he couldn’t really pace the front.
Tonya and I talked about how to make the Apple watches work. She has the Strava app running in the background so she can have the timer running too. I have the native Apple app working and it cannot coexist with the timer. I killed my warm-up track and was going to start the timer, but ultimately we settled on Tonya timing because she’s more used to doing it with her regular watch anyway. I wasn’t too concerned since I pace is pretty zippy and if we can get even one good lap in we can typically feel the pace and hold it.
The sets themselves
Our first lap of the first set was too slow by about 4-5 seconds so we picked it up as we went along. It felt increasingly more challenging but it was good. We finished with a not too fast 400 and then started again.
It was a pretty uneventful workout in that we hit the paces, chatted a bit and generally enjoyed the evening. When we hit set 3 Tonya decided to drop to a 600 but said she’d time our last lap. I had been running just a step behind her so I was running solo for that last lap until Ken passed by me. I had a new rabbit in Ken and just worked to stay with him. I ended up being a couple of seconds fast for that lap which made the entire set come out to spot on.
On our last set Tonya dropped after 400 and it was Ken, Kim and me for the last two. Kim had been with a faster group but her form was failing so she dropped back just a bit to join us. It was nice to have her for our last couple of sets. I enjoyed this last set most of all only because I had to push myself a bit harder to finish. There’s something so comfortingly easy about running with Tonya. It is familiar and I know we can push each other to stay the course. I haven’t really run with Kim or Ken and as Ken passed by me again on lap 3, I realized that it is often our mindset that determines if we stay with someone or let them go. Without a proper watch I didn’t know what Ken’s pace was. I only knew that he was currently passing me and I haven’t really run with him before. I thought for a brief second, “oh he’s faster than you so you don’t have to stay with him.” I quickly replaced that thought with, “he is in your group so you should be running with him.” As soon as I made that mental switch it felt a little like running with Tonya. I would stay with him and Kim because they were in my group. Ultimately they did get a bit ahead of me, but I could tell I they were speeding up (it was the last lap and people often race it) and I was holding pace. This was confirmed when I finished and Tonya told them they were a bit ahead and I came in on pace. I like that I can feel the pace now and while a watch is nice, it is not a full disaster to not have one!
Until next week .... if it is still happening by then.
The Last Week
It wasn’t supposed to be the last week, but Coronavirus has really impacted the area. Cornell is taking measures and stopping large gatherings, and Adam decided it would be our last indoor week. When we arrived at Barton we waited for awhile and talked about how the FLRC just had to make the decision to cancel the Skunk Cabbage Classic for this year. The Cornell indoor track team wasn’t wrapped up by 7 like they normally are - in fact they were setting up hurdles at 7 pm. Soon, Adam called us over to the middle and we decided to start our warm-up on the infield followed by an outdoor warm-up.
I really want to go home
I really don’t know why I had such a hard time, but the start of this evening didn’t go well for me. Tonya and David had asked me if I wanted to run outside for a mile at 6:50. It was threatening rain and I didn’t have proper outdoor running gear so I decided to stay and just hang out and wait til 7 pm.
When we started the warm-ups it just felt kind of off. There was a somber mood in the the group. Maybe it was having learned the Skunk Cabbage was cancelled, maybe it was because it was the last week and maybe it was just because of the general mood in the area. Learning that Cornell is sending students home after spring break and knowing your own child (at Ithaca College) will probably be in the same boat in a few days makes for a really weird headspace.
After our warm-ups Adam said we would do our warmup run outside (the Cornell team still had the track for their hurdles). I had a tank top and shorts on and it was too cold for that. I had a too heavy jacket on that I chose to wear for running. I was frustrated about going outside and just generally sad that it was already 7:20 or so meaning there was no way I’d get miles for the weekend. Now I REALLY regretted not running with Tonya and David. Here we were outside anyway and I could have gotten 2 warm-up miles in.
I ran the entire mile just listening to others talk. It seemed like too much effort to speak. That is so atypical for me. I came back in, wandered over slowly to the bathroom and contemplated just running outside for the rest of the evening. The one mile loop we did was relatively lit and it wasn’t terrible to run in my too heavy jacket.
But I’m here
My decision was made for me when I came out of the bathroom and Adam was still setting the stage. I had reasoned that if they started while I was poking along I’d just run solo and do the steady state run. If they hadn’t started it meant that I was destined to do repeats this eve. I grabbed my water bottle and walked over. Soon we were starting our 4x200 sets with 200 recovery in-between each. The group was smaller than normal. However both Tony and John were there and I really like running with both of them.
We agreed that instead of doing three 1000s we’d drop to 800s. Tonya is still struggling with her foot and John planned to peel off after 800 and then join us at the start of each. This was good given those things and the time. We are the slowest group and I knew we risked not having time to do one or both of the 400s if we kept things at 1000s. We settled into things and Tonya timed our first 800.
Your turn
Tonya couldn’t get her watch going on the 2nd set. Our I pace actually calls for 56 but we were shooting for 59s (T pace). That’s relatively easy to time on a running clock so I took over paying attention to time for this 800. It was good for me to do this and have to think. I love the group but it is a reminder that someone has to step up to lead the timing bit and sometimes that person needs to be me. I do think that before I do this next year I’m going to sort out my timing situation. I feel like I should be able to take the lead anytime and have it not require doing math in my head as I run.
Last 400s and cool down with Ken
We finally finished with our sets of 2x400 with 400 rest in between. I loved this because John had such a strong night. The longer distances are hard for him (he rocks the 200s) and with the 800s he would be rounding the bend and staying up with Tonya and me right up to the last lap. The 400s were strong for him too. I like when other people have good evenings and feel like it brings me up. We’re all in this together and we have our good nights and our bad nights. I felt grateful that I’d managed to turn my mood around.
We wrapped up and I said, “anyone want to do a slow cool down?” Tonya was done because of her foot and no one else answered quickly. Ken said, “sure” and we started running. We talked just a bit as we ran 3 or 4 laps to wind down from the workout. It was a nice way to end the workout.
Until next year
Scott and I chatted briefly with John at the end. It is weird leaving a space and knowing you probably won’t see someone until next December!! I really enjoyed running with this group this winter. I appreciated the opportunity to meet new people and see old friends. I’m bittersweet about it ending. It is March and I expected it to end, but found it to be a good way to spend a Tuesday eve. I know I’ll transition into a new Tuesday eve plan thought.
Mom I’m ready!
And just as Scott and I were walking out of Barton at 8:25 we got a text from Xander. His musical rehearsal ended 40 minutes early. He is ready for a ride home. He sweetly said, “It’s ok. I can just stay here until you get here.” We arrived just before 9, scooping him up for a good night’s rest before everything starts again tomorrow!