Friday, November 03, 2006

Incremental Progress

The flat BART trail near my house was perfect for a bit of speed work. A cool gray morning lent itself to going a little faster out than I normally do. I spotted Joel in front of the bagel shop and caught up with him for a bit. It wasn't long before I knew I wouldn't be able to sustain Joels pace to get to Richmond so I bid my farewell and eased back into a slower pace.

I wanted to try running faster again somewhere in the middle than taper off at the end. I did that until I got to Richmond. On the turnaround I would pick 2 fixed points that I knew would challenge me and sprint than either jog or walk until recovery. By the end recovery felt less recovered and I was tired. I definitely made up for Wednesday's not so speedy track session. Speedwork is still very hard........ but less dreadful for sure.

This route is roughly 7 or so miles and usually takes me an 1.5 hrs. going slow without walking. Today it took 1.o hr doing a combination of tempo, fartlek and walk breaks.

Afterwards I zipped over to the Y for a short swim. Leaky right goggle got me off to an annoyed start........I'm sure I annoyed the woman sharing the lane with me when I stopped part way to adjust my goggles....dumb move on my part I know...shortly after that I slipped into a nother lane that I didn't have to share with others and fucked around with my goggles for the remainder of the swim. I mostly enjoyed the long hot uninterrupted shower before and the soak in the jacuzzi afterwards.

I saw Coach Jack from triclub. I let him know he'd be proud to hear I was doing speedwork at the track. He asked if I would continue "triing"and I was suprised a little by my response. I said "you know coach, my main goal was to learn to swim and to get into road biking." The thing I said next surprised me even more. I said "I think it(tri) was a summer fling." Coach was generous to add that now I was benefitting from all the cross training and that would only serve my running. My thoughts exactly. I did add that tris are fun....the feeling I experienced during and after a race was unlike anything I had ever known before. I mentioned the 1/2 in SF....he's done it in the past and agreed it is a beautiful run...though a bit tedious along the Great Highway.

Coach Jack is an older gentleman with a broad smile and a glint in his eyes. Kind and sharp witted he seems to really love his life. He underwent shoulder surgery over the summer. He squirmed under the strict orders from PT ....when I said "so you knew to take it easy,right?" He was quick to add "No!....PT layed down the law to keep me from going overboard"...Coach Jack is the CAL triclub Coach ...a bit of jock,uhuh yeah.....anyways, he's competing in the Treasure Island Tri this weekend.
Go Coach!

Not sure if I'll be riding solo or with others this weekend....Sunday is supposed to be nice. Either way I'm getting out there before it rains again.