Don't forget the headlamp!

Monday afternoon I got an email saying that the indoor track where we usually run the Tuesday evening running club practices would be closed.

Tuesday morning I received confirmation that we would not be running indoors, but outside at a local park.  We ran at this park throughout the fall and it has some great trails as well as a 1200m loop around a reservoir.  This was the perfect place to do last night’s workout – running on an indoor 200m track would have been so boring.

 

The view from the loop on a nice summer day!

We met up a little before 6pm and did a short warm up around the loop.  There were a lot of runners out as the Fleet Feet group runs on this loop on Tuesday night as well.  As the sun began to set, we did some quick math before starting the workout.   

2x 4000m at tempo pace with 3 mins recovery (4km = ~2.48 mi)

1 lap = 1200m/0.75mi

4000m = 3.5 laps

I don’t have a garmin so I had to guesstimate where the half way point of the loop would be.  We started on the downhill which then goes into a long uphill.  At the top of that hill it evens out for a bit then has a slight downhill followed by a slight uphill as you come to the completion of one full loop.  Everyone took off down the hill but I tried not to start too fast which didn’t work.  I sailed through the first loop in a faster time that last week’s 1200m on the track.  I was feeling good so I tried to keep the pace but running the long uphill 4x was tough and definitely slowed me down.  It was a beautiful run – the sun set, the light slowly vanishing as twilight became night; the view of the city with the lights of the buildings shining bright and the many runners out on the loop slowly turning on their headlamps.

First loop = 5:16

Second loop = 10:48

Third loop = 15:50

Total (3.5 loops) = 19:11

I jogged the rest of the loop back to the start which took me over 3 minutes.  For the second set, I turned on my headlamp to combat the growing darkness and set out to run just as fast as I had the first time.  It was tough but what I enjoyed most during this second 4km was watching all the headlamps bobbing out across the course.  It was so much fun to have so many runners out all running the same course.  I am glad that I had my headlamp not only to light my way but also so that the other runners could see me as they ran towards me.  A head on collision would not have been good.  Over the course of this tempo, my eyes became blurry in the darkness and it was hard to focus.  I don’t know if it was because I was hungry or just pushing it really hard but I almost felt drunk.  My vision wasn’t clear and it felt like my body was on auto-pilot just running the workout.

First loop = 5:20

Second loop = 11:03

Third loop = 16:05

Total (3.5 loops) = 19:42

I was glad to be done after this and slowly jogged one more loop and then headed for my car.  I felt in a daze of exhaustion as I drove home.  A hot shower and dinner definitely helped to bring me back to life.  I later mapped out the course and I think I ended up running a little over 2.6 miles for the tempo instead of the 2.48 miles but that tends to happen when you don’ t have a GPS watch.

I tried to get up this morning to run a recovery 2 miles but it just didn’t happen.  My schedule said recovery or rest and I think I need the rest after that workout!  I always seem to push myself harder when I am with the running team!

Bathroom shot post workout

Total workout = ~7.85 miles in 1:02:32

Happy Wednesday!