Surviving the Repeats

It is over. For this week, anyway.

I made it through this morning’s workout due in part to:

• An observation made last night during a play session with Fezzy. As I threw his various toys about 50 feet across our house, I watched his exuberance and joy as he charged down his stuffed frog and squirrel. He happily ran as fast as he could – and while his splayed leg transition turns may need some technique work, his efforts made me smile. He played long and hard – never giving up the chase. And made me realize that maybe I needed to approach the repeats with a little less of a “training” perspective – and with more with a “hey, let’s go for it” kind of spirit.
• An email from my sister-in-law – whose twin daughters are competitive – and I mean like regional and national caliber – swimmers. From the email “Good luck with tomorrow's workout! If it makes you feel any better, the girls will already be in the pool at 6 am, which means a 5:15 am rise time, 15 minutes later than they do all week for school. They will swim and do dryland until 8:30 am.” And it did make me feel better. I remembered being their age – and sleeping late on weekends till 10 or 11 o’clock – and thought – if they can have such discipline and commitment at their young ages, the least I can do is stop whining and work on a better attitude.

So, I went to bed fairly early. When the alarm buzzed at 6:15, I stole a few extra winks, but resisted the urge to find some sort of excuse to stay in bed until bike class. During the car ride, I chuckled as the car temperature gauge dropped from 28 to 22 degrees - when I pulled into the Maramarc parking lot, a few minutes late, but before the group had headed off to start the run drills.

First was the timed mile. Honestly, it was cold. It was tough. My breathing was less than great. And I wouldn’t have minded stopping about half-way through. But I finished with a more consistent pace than some earlier attempts and with a 20 second gain after the first drill in December – an 8:20 mile time.

After a few minutes rest, it was time to start the four half miles. My first one was rather awful – a 4:30. The next three were consistent, better and within an acceptable deviation from my target pace - 4:19, 4:20 and 4:18.

My legs were a wee bit more tired than usual during the subsequent hour and a half bike. And afterwards, while heading to TRIgirl coffee, I realized, in the midst of the relief that the workout was over, that I was relishing the idea of a nap.

An idea I happily indulged a few hours later.