Thursday Night Battles

Due to the snow storm, we delayed our workout until Thursday…until most, if not all, of the snow was melted. I ran an easy 5 in the morning (my standard morning workout 5) and felt very good. I’ve felt good on EVERY run this week…this is a rarity for me at such high mileage, usually I feel like this when I’m around 50 mpw and well rested.

My plan was to run 6 x 800m (400m rest) at 2:22ish. Reaves decided to partake in the festivities, while Murphy ran a longer workout. Reaves and I wanted to “warm up” into the workout and knocked out a comfortable 2:25. Then we started to pick it up: 2:23, 2:20, 2:18, 2:17 & 2:15. I neglected to bring my watch and again ran by feel. Reaves wore a watch and called out 400m splits. I tried to run even for the most part, but I am sure I didn’t succeed most of the time. I always like to push the second to last and then “suffer” through the last rep, but yesterday I was able to run my fastest at the end. It was tough. My legs were pretty tired starting on #4. Each rep that followed was more and more tiring.

While shuffle jogging during the rest on the last interval, my hamstring began to cramp up. I tried to shake it out, but to no avail. The temps were in the high 40s (I think) and I was running in shorts, t-shirt and baseball cap. Nothing too crazy, but we were putting our legs in high gear. Soon both of my legs began to spasm and I headed up to the car to put on pants. This has really never happened to me before while on the track. Though, I can remember marathons having this affect. I continued to shuffle jog, slowly, around the parking lot as the two Patricks ran 200m strides.

As we pressed on with our official cool down, I began to feel loopy. We were dogging the pace, but I felt as if I was running home from a pub on a Saturday night; I felt wasted. Less than a mile into the cooldown I felt as if I was running through the clouds. I began to think of my Gatorade back at the car…then I began to crave and beg for it. With a 1/3 of a mile to go, I decided to stop and walk it in. My sugars had dived like the stock market and I was done. I got back, chugged some Gatorade, ate a GU then went to Booeymonger for a cheeseburger – I need food and in a big way. Then, of course, my stomach started to hurt.

At least the workout was good. 15 for the day.