Notes
Another great day out and Drew and I were heading to the track now that winter is over (not true, but you never know). Lots of other people out too, including (as I had feared) the track team. Practice must have just started yesterday. I was ready to give up on it but Drew suggested a long warm up. We did 4 miles (mostly grumbling about how terrible this workout was going to go) and returned: still people on the track. But... maybe there's people leaving.
We do 2 more miles, most of it a tempo that felt pretty good once we got going (5:45 pace). And this time, we returned to an (almost) empty track. Maybe 800's in 2:45 won't feel that bad... that's right, we're doing a prologue (Drew's idea). My first since college. But Drew says he's done it a few times and I've heard to other Luther alums doing it. While I've done 800's at a similar pace, it's never been a true prologue, I guess I just never loved the workout or used it as a fitness indicator.
So it begins. I led the first and started a little fast but slowed to get 2:43.5. Felt good but we'll see. We alternated leading and switched directions after every 2nd one. 3 more right about 2:45 then I dropped it a tad to under 2:43 for the 5th.
The 6th rep was the critical one for me. I was drafting off Drew and starting to feel fatigued. My goal was 8 reps and I began to worry about how hard those would feel. But while I was considering how much dreading I should do, we were almost done and I realized it felt easy again. I did get a little mad though as I realized this likely meant I felt good enough to do more than 8 though :)
We finished off 8, hovering more in the 2:43/2:44 range and Drew confirmed he wanted 10. I led the 9th and for the first time was slowed a bit by the wind (there was a solid wind today, not miserable though). Or at least this was the first time it didn't feel easy to push slightly harder into the wind. I was caught off guard and was forced to get back on pace. Then Drew mustered a 2:38.5 for the final one.
We both finished feeling strong and capable of doing more. I was hesitant since this was already a long workout and Drew was considering a time trial this weekend. 10 is my record, by the way (not the 25 that the legends tell). I thought it should be an easier workout than during college as we are further into the season and have done many workouts (Drew didn't agree with that) on top of which today was pretty ideal temps while XC prologue is not (Drew conceded that point).