Tuesday Track Work

11 x 200 with a 200 bounce.

According to the schedule today was supposed to be 10 x 200. It was a short workout because most of the group will be doing the Sandestin Triathlon Saturday or the 2-mile Elvis Lives Run Thursday.

Now you are wondering whether I have trouble counting to 10. If this were a swim workout the answer would be YES. I can't keep track of laps to save my life. However, during speed work, I know exactly how many reps I have done.

So the plan at the beginning of the workout was 2 sets of 5 with a 3 minute rest in between sets. There was some mumbling about one guy doing 20 instead of 10, but I ignored that.

The first set of five went as planned. I was not quite fast enough to start each rep with the fast crowd but less than 25 meters behind at the end of 5 laps. During the second set, I was able to stay a little bit closer and catch up during the recovery. It was during this set that the brain washing happened.

After the third 200,

Leader: "Only two more in this set". 

Me: "Only two more then beer"

After the fourth 

One more then a break

One more then I die

During the final recovery and rest period

Even if you can't do another set you should do at 
least 1 more. It will make you feel better.

I knew this was lie but I just couldn't say no. After a four minute rest I lined up with the rest of the crazies ready to give this final 200 everything I had left. 

3, 2, 1, go

And we were off...well, they were off. I was left in the dust. It turns out my limit is ten.

The silver lining in all of this was the "new" and improving Guido Sportif triathlon support van waiting in the parking lot with a 1/6 keg of strawberry ale. More pictures to come as the planned upgrades are completed.

New Job and New Toy!!

 Today was my first day in a new position. I am still just an intern but different office and different responsibilities. I am slowly working my way closer to the job I want not just what I have to do to pay the bills while in Grad School.

Causeway Bridge

This switch adds about 25 minutes of bridge driving (see above) to my commute each way which means morning runs happen in the dark.  Not a big deal since during the summer in Louisiana that is the most comfortable time to run anyway.

Waiting in my mailbox when I got home was my new-to-me Garmin Forerunner 310xt!

Garmin Forerunner 310xt

I had a Forerunner 305 for a few years until I lost it at a post-race party a couple weekends ago. Since I have started doing heart rate training I decided to upgrade to the 310XT in order to have vibrating alerts.

I have only used it once but I am already in love. The vibrating alerts set to the heart rate zone worked well on the run. Running 11+ minute mile pace is still painfully boring to me to but with the new watch I can start to zone out since I don’t need to look at the watch every 5 seconds. (Audio books on my mp3 player also help with the zoning out J)

Another neat feature of the 310XT is how it works with the Training Peaks Device Agent. This allows me to wirelessly upload the data straight to Training Peaks. I can now leave the watch plugged in near the front door so I won’t forget to grab it on my way out.