May 25th - MCC Track - 6.45 miles - 1:16

Looks like it's going to be another stupidly hot and humid summer. Yay.

With Bo out of town I stopped home to feed the dogs, then I hit every read light between my house and the track. Normally I would have had a mini-stroke about being less than 15 minutes early, but I'm so much more comfortable and confident about training this year I didn't sweat it (ha - summer joke!).

I rolled up pretty much right at 6:30 to relieved looks from Kathy and Ameenah. We chatted for a few minutes before taking off for the warm-up lap. I stuck with Ameenah and we did it right this time, like a minute and a half slower than I did it the last time. It's got a few little hills, though to me every hill is huge, and I tried my hardest not to wear myself out. I declare that lap a success!

Then to the track - 14 laps with laps 4, 8 and 12 (I think) being 10-20 seconds faster than LSD pace. It took a while to get into a groove, we have a few people who'd never done track runs before and a coach who didn't entirely realise that the outside lane (to which we slowpokes are relegated) is longer than the inside. We would occasionally gain and lose group members as the speed, heat and humidity took their toll. Coach Mike wanted to stop for water only once, after lap 7, but we out voted him and decided to take a quick break every four or five laps. Speedwork or not, on an 85 degree evening with 85% humidity some of us needed frequent water stops.

We finished with a group five strong, and four of us headed out for the cool-down lap. It's a different route from the warm-up but I don't like it any more. Still when Coach Mike gave us the option of five more laps around the track or one around campus we immediately jumped on the campus run. I can only take so many circles! We headed out of the track and went right, most groups seemed to go left. I think I like left better, going right you come back up a hill through a parking lot that seems worse than it is but you usually don't want to do when you're so close to your car. I usually fall behind here but I refused to let Coaches Kathy and Mike one-up me and I stuck with them to the end.

It was hot but I actually had a really good time out there. We ran fast (math shows an average 11:53 pace) and at times it felt a little tough but when it was over I felt happy and strong. And sweaty.