Round and Round

Today was my second time at the track this week. Fundamentally, I struggle with the concept of the hamster wheel known as the track - finishing where you started and all. I prefer to do speedwork on the roads whenever possible but neither Tuesday's workout nor today's were conducive to that.

Today called for 10x300, at 62-63 per 300, which is approximately 5:32-5:36 pace.

In the end, the workout went fine, though intervals this short and fast are always kind of strange for me, as I don't feel I have a gear that's much faster than this. On one hand, you'd think that would make the workout harder, but it almost doesn't. It's like I'm putting it on redline and hoping I can hold it for a minute.

On the other hand, it wasn't lost on me that the pace I was doing these 300s at was right around my high school 2 mile PR pace twenty-three years ago. (I'm fairly certain I might hold the Pennsylvania high school record of most 11:01 two milers while never breaking 11.) I'd like to see the kid that did those races and tell him that 11:01 ain't too shabby, after all.

Of course, he likely would've said, "Shut up, creepy old guy."

In other news, I was thrilled to be chosen by Boston.com to test out some Polar gear and blog about it. Those posts will appear first at the Boston.com marathon blog, located here, but I'll cross-promote them on this blog as well. I'm very excited to try out the Polar, particularly for the heart-rate features. I'm always looking for the next thing I can do to eek out some additional performance from my relatively mediocre body. Last year, I successful ramped up the mileage to complete a 50 miler and qualify for the Boston Marathon. This current build has been all about adding in speedwork and not getting hurt and (knock on wood) I'm shocked that I'm nearly there. As we move into the summer, I'm looking to add more serious cycling workouts to my plan as well as heart-rate training. And that's where I'm hoping the Polar comes in.

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