Thursday 071813

Okay … having had a few days to recover, it was time to get in a workout in.  After dinner and a jog (that combo is a paradox of “not a good idea” and “good idea”) I was exploring Strava a bit.  I was wondering what other routes locals had tagged up there.  I have pretty much been on the same route here every time.  It is a great path along the water and very pretty but I was curious about anything else I could be missing.  As I was scouting around, I saw something very nearby that is almost always as beautiful to me:  a track

There is always a question with tracks if they are open to the public.  Google Maps Street View was actually available for this track, and it seemed to confirm it was very accessible.

Hooray!  I know that some folks abhor the track, and frankly the honesty of tracks sometimes weigh on me but I at the same time I enjoy “bagging” a track while on the road in a manner probably similar to some getting a county high point.

A short jog through a park and I was there.  There were about 30 people on the track, mostly walking in the outer lanes.  Nearly all of the people using the track were a.) older (as in over 60), and b.) Asian in appearance.  I sort of stuck out racing around a bit more quickly.  Up in the corner of the track there were a half dozen people doing what I think was Tai Chi. 

Great track though – in good shape, with stands to the side, open clean rest rooms, and a clock giving the time at the start / finish point on the track (I needed to ignore this though).  There were these very large black rabbits with white feet running around the edge of the track as well.  They were pretty damn cute, but almost ridiculously tame.  The field was bounded with several other turf fields, some that had some weird line markings that I could not quite figure out.

Per instruction of Lucho, today’s workout was to be a set “blind” miles – meaning that I would perform this efforts on that:  effort versus eyeballing my watch every 200 meters so that I could adjust.  They were meant to be fast but relaxed, never straining. 

I did a few 200s (41, 41, 40, 38) to open up a bit and then got to business.  6:01, 6:01, 5:57, 5:59, 5:49.  with about a minute rest on each. On the last one, I did push a bit more on the last 600.  All of these were track miles – meaning I started back at the waterfall line 9 meters back of the traditional start.  Interestingly, the GPS has all of what I did a touch long.  I’d like to think that I did these at the split paces rather than the split time, but that ain’t the way it works.



I had the option of a sixth, but my stomach was ready for a bio break post the fifth.  After that I closed out with a few 200s (36, 35, 35, 35) to wrap it up and jogged back to the hotel.  10.3 on the day.  Good workout.  Not zippy, but the efforts came relatively easily.   My legs never felt great so again I was sort of in that middle spot but I know I have some basic fitness I can call on to work through these sessions.  Happy that I can just roll through this and get some good stimulus without having to go to deep to the well.

I might have to start a tag – segment on tracks visited with a review criteria (accuracy of track, bathrooms, access to track, surface, lane markings, whether it has a steeple pit, clock, stands, overall setting, etc.

Sort of pathetic but this morning’s workout was supplemented by Pandora’s “Night Ranger” station.  It included classics like this one (that I enjoyed):

This is a cool game that our Scouts have been playing.

Anyone read “The Bluest Eye?”