Gone with (and then Into) the Wind

I know I know I know, it's no 'hurricane like winds,' but a Midwest 'wind advisory' is no fun. I slept in on Tuesday, thereby pushing my track workout to the evening. I did this because I'm lazy in an attempt to avoid the nasty winds that were blowing from Atlanta to Alpena.

What made this wind even worse is that it was a 'gusting' wind. Which is runner code for 'always blowing when you are running head-on and always easing up when at your back.' I could see waves in the grass the wind was whipping so wickedly. But I nonetheless began rounding the track despite the wind's attempt to whisk me and Tara through Georgia.

And even though it didn't help, I did give the wind a two finger salute each time I faced it for a 100M straightaway. Childish, yes. But frankly my dears...you get the point. Because, in the end, even if you perfectly split time spent going headlong into the wind and with it at your back, you always lose more going into--than you gain going with--the wind.

Finally, I wanted to give a massive thanks to the Redhead for biking along with me on my 14M in FL this past weekend. She assured me I was very lucky to get a near perfect morning--high 70s and no humidity. And it was perfect, because I had my wonderful Southern belle accompanying me.

Track Track Track

Last weekend’s long run was awesome. I started at 6am (well, I had to make it to tailgate early) and clocked off 15 very comfortable miles. Despite the fact that there was some wide variance of my pace (fastest mile was 6:53, slowest was 7:14), my average was a very solid 7:03/M.

But my track workout yesterday was much more consistent. I ventured back to MSU’s track with the hope that it wouldn’t be closed to runners. Fortunately, it was not. So I plowed through 10 400m. My fastest was 71 seconds and my slowest was 74 seconds; and laps 2-7 were all 73 seconds. Such consistency is rare for me, but I’ll gladly take it.

“Mighty Brave of You”

Apparently, the reports of Summer’s early demise have been slightly exaggerated around here. But the sunset time is steadily creeping down, so my ‘evening’ track sessions are becoming ‘mid-evening’ track sessions. Oh well, we do what we do.

As I walked onto the track I noted one other runner and a large carpet draped across the track and buttressed up against the football field. This carpet is quite helpful in avoiding damage to the track by all those unfriendly football cleats, but doesn’t help the runners one bit while it’s down. So, I simply pulled the carpet back on top if itself and out of lanes one and two.

Shortly thereafter the other runner stopped and asked whether I had pulled the carpet back? I resisted all temptation to blurt out a condescending insult (like, no the magic track gnomes did it) and simply answered affirmatively. He then asked me if I had permission to do that, and I said “No.” The other runner stood there silently for a few seconds and then said, “I’m glad you did that, it’s mighty brave of you.”

Feeling like a hero, I ran 1K, 2K, 1K, and 1K. My times were three seconds off my goal time per 1K. Consistent. Nice. I really feel I could have made my goal times, but the other runner had left and I was running these alone. Of the many things I miss about running with the MMTC, having other people push you to go faster on speed work is definitely one of them.

This weekend I’ve got a 23M run, and I’m going to try something different with my music. The twist is to listen to a book for the first half, and then music for the last half. I mean, I have all this unused space on my iPod.