Cool Running

So it seemed like it was taking forever for Tropical Storm Fay to get here. As I write this, it's finally raining hard and has been on and off for the last 60-90 minutes. Before that though, it wasn't bad at all. Track Shack officially cancelled all of their group training runs, but of course, that doesn't stop the Sandbaggers from showing up.

But what a poor showing. There were only six of us: Nate, Mike, Corey, Sarah, George, and me. And the weather was nearly perfect for running, except perhaps for the occasionally gusting headwind. The rain was steady, but light. We've run in worse than that.

The workout was an oldie but goodie: 800m pairs. The idea is to run the first of the pair at a given pace, recover slightly, then run the second one faster. Repeat 3 or 4 times.

Today it was 800m @ 10K pace, 200m recovery, 800m 4-6 seconds faster, 400m recovery, 4 pairs in total. I chased Sarah around the track. Sarah qualified and ran for Boston last year. Needless to say, she had me finishing 5-10 seconds faster than I intended to run. But since I did that for all 8 runs, I clearly set the bar too low for myself to begin with.

Also, the cool weather really makes a difference. We really hustled on the last two 800's and I think I could have done another set. Since Fay appears to be sticking around Central Florida for a while, hopefully that will keep the temps down and I can squeeze in some good runs between the raindrops.