What Happens at Track Practice?

This past Tuesday I finally made it to track practice.  Even though I've been in PR Training since December, this is only the second one I've been to.  We've had crazy snow/ice on multiple Tuesdays, Christmas Eve & New Year's Eve fell on Tuesdays, and I had to work in our downtown office on a few Tuesdays.  So I haven't been to Track Tuesday since December 17!

So what happens at track practice?  We meet at the local high school track at 6:30.  For those first 15 minutes, you warm up on your own.  Easy laps around the track, dynamic stretching, whatever your personal routine is.  At 6:45 the coaches remind us of the various workouts that we are doing.  There were ten groups this past Tuesday - beginner, intermediate, advanced Cherry Blossom, the same three groups for half marathon training that started in December, three more for the marathon training that started in December, and finally the begin/build/base program.  A couple of groups had the same workout, so the coaches reviewed 8 different workouts with us.

We all receive spreadsheets at the beginning of the training with our workouts for the whole program.  And we get weekly emails that remind us about our training for the week.  So you might think we would all know what we are doing...but there seems to be a certain amount of confusion each week regardless! 

My workout for the week was 4 to 6 repeats of 400 meters at tempo pace (e.g., comfortably hard) followed by a two minute recovery jog.  400 meters is one lap around the track, and roughly 1/4 of a mile. I thought I might only do 4 repeats since I started practice feeling a little tired, but I rallied about halfway through and ended up doing all 6.  My favorite part was the recovery jog (which turned into a recovery walk for me).  The recovery jog is in the outside lane, up and back.  So while you are going up in the outside lane, most everyone else is doing their running in the 2 inside lanes and there is lots of waving and smiling when people pass each other, which makes track practice that much more fun.  The running community is so friendly!

After practice a bunch of us chatted for a few minutes about the upcoming Run Your Heart Out 5k on Sunday which many of us will be running.  I picked my race packet up this morning, and the shirt looks a nice valentine-y red.