Tuesday, September 16, 2008 (3xarroyo tempo)

I came to practice the way I used to go to the buffet at Sizzler as a kid - unsure what would be waiting there but pretty much willing to go along with it regardless. Scott had the guys running more hill repeats over the roads, which was among the short list of workout I was not willing to do. Instead, I drove the van down to the arroyo (the hill repeats were on San Rafael), and did 3xarroyo tempo, intending a fairly-relaxed 9:00 pace.

My splits were:
9:18, 8:32, 8:31 = 26:20 total

This wasn't what I expected or planned for, but I'm satisfied with it nonetheless. On the first lap, my perception was that from my cadence and stride, I was going faster than I wanted, not slower. I felt a good rhythm, but was just counting the tempo wrong. I would have expected 8:40 rather than 9:20. But when I looked at my watch, it did make sense that my time was slow. I was much too comfortable for an 8:40 lap. Apparently my lungs know my pace better than my brain does. I had figured my legs were simply feeling very fresh due to several easy/off days recently. But they were feeling normal, and my brain had just adjusted itself to get used to slow-osity

After the first lap, I decided I could crank the pace down a lot. Which I did. I felt strong and controlled over the next two laps, which is a bit surprising considering that I thought I was going fast on the first one. I wasn't strained, though. My heart rate was only about 180 at the end. It frequently gets to 190 on tempo runs.

I returned to the planned rendezvous with the team at 8:00. They were half an hour late, so I got some unplanned meditation in as well.

In the afternoon I jogged down to Lacy with the guys and bullshitted for about twenty minutes before jogging back, too fast. Then we did a preposterous ab workout, that lasted almost half an hour. By the end of it, I don't think anyone was really getting much out of it. We were just thrashing around on the grass like flipped over turtles, but without quite so much striation on our belly sides. I think this sort of preposterous over-volume workout a symptom of the warped mentality, "if one cookie for dessert is good, then ten cookies is MAGNIFICENT!!"

But no, one cookie is plenty. Except sometimes you should take two, unless you want to be really really good. Then you can take three, but it's risky. Also, if you work up to it gradually over the course of years of training, you can take six or seven. That would be magnificent.