where did that come from?

My track workout today was a workout to remember. Don't you love those? They are so rare or they wouldn't be worth remembering. I have plenty of icky ones stuck in my vault of workout memories, more than I'd like to share, but some really good ones too and now a new 1 for the collection of greats. My workout was a version of a set of 1000s which I have been I've been doing off and on all season. Thomo and I even talked by skype week and he gave me a good pep talk (he is awesome for that) about my fitness, racing next weekend and specifically this workout. He gave me a set of times to hit and I'll admit that I might have choked on my water and raised an eyebrow when he said the splits.......see, its been a while since I've run like that, but I was up to the challenge.

So today I headed to the track like I have been doing off and all summer. I was psyched to run on the track, because I love those workouts, but was a bit nervous and somewhat doubtful. I didn't let the doubt get in the way though, because that can be the death of the workout. Instead I just let it fire me up..something to really shoot for. It was so hot and muggy already in the morning, and I felt awful warming up and even thought, maybe I just don't even want to do Chicago. Its an insanely crazy race, but I kep warming up, did my dynamic warm up, drills, and strides and started feeling better. So off I go on the first 1000 feeling good thinking about cadence and turnover. I felt good but only peaked at the watch just a smidge because I didn't want the numbers to get in the way. I felt great and thought I'd be close to the high end of times that I did last week, but no! To my surprise I hit the exact time he wanted me to! I was thrilled; almost did a cartwheel on the track but probably would have cramped up. So I continued on with a little more pep in my step for the next few even going 1 sec. faster on 1 of them! I did my cool down with a big smile on my face trying to remember the last time I ran those times and I believe it was the year I was training for Worlds in Switzerland, which was 2006! Yikes (which by the way is 1 race I would love to have back; all others I'm sure I got what I deserved good and bad...this one though I think I was in my best shape of my life and got a flat tire).

I"ve been working with Thomo for about 1.5 years now,

and this season we have had about 2 key run workouts that have been the staple through the entire season. Nothing fancy or earth shattering, or magical; just different versions of the same key workouts each week, like more intervals shorter rest, or fewer intervals more rest various paces based on where I am with racing. Needless to say I have run a lot of 1000s and I've grown to like that distance on the track. I've been consistent with the workouts and plugged along having many decent ones, some ugly ones too. But today it came together. I think we as athletes forget how the training accumulates and all feeds into the overall fitness leading to a great performance.

Whatever happens next weekend in the mass of thousands racing, this is a fun little win for me to nail the times on the track back down to where they were pre-40ish!