Track Workouts: The Necessary Evil

It is 5:01 am and my alarm blares loudly, I quickly turn it off so that I don’t wake up my husband or 8 year old who is snuggled up in between the two of us. I take a deep breath and think to myself, “If it is raining I am getting back in bed!” I roll out of bed and tip toe down stairs and am greeted with a frigid blast of air as I crack open the front door to check the early morning weather. It is wet, but doesn’t appear to be raining…Damn! Then I quickly check my phone to see if anyone cancelled for the morning. Nope, just a text making sure I am still on my way…Damn! I stop for a brief second to consider the possibility of climbing back in bed, but instantly realize that if I don’t go I will regret it the rest of the day, so I rush back upstairs in the dark and put on my running clothes making sure I am in plenty of layers ( just in case I get warm). Grab my jacket, water bottle, a banana and head out the door ready to meet up with the Honey Badgers. Thank goodness my truck has seat warmers!

 It is Wednesday morning, which only means one thing…TRACK PRACTICE!  Some people say they love track, others seem to have a love/hate relationship, for me, I guess I would say I tolerate it, but there is certainly no love. It is simply a necessary evil, as far as I am concerned. Track practice and doing speed work are important training tools even for long distance running. It is an opportunity to build strength and push us in ways we can not push ourselves otherwise or on long runs. It is essential, I do it, I am glad when it is over I am energized by rush it gives me…but I never look forward to it.

 I arrive at the Starbucks parking lot at 5:15, just hoping for a few more minutes of the warmth in my car. While I am getting my gloves, ear warmers and head lamp on I notice it is starting to drizzle. “UGH”, I take a deep breath climb out of my truck to greet the gang. Within minutes we are headed off down the trail, on our way to the track, already talking and laughing.

 During the school year, we usually finish track about the same time school starts and learned (the hard way), that we do not want to get stuck in the parking lot as the students are coming to school. So we park about ¾ of mile away and run along a trail to the local HS Track, where we finish our warm up and stretch, before the workout begins.

 Today we are doing 3 miles warm up (and yes, I did warm up and even took off my top layer), then a fast 800, easy 400, fast 400 (1 mile total), four times, followed by a 2 mile cool down, which includes the run back to the cars. The one nice thing about track is even though we are all different speeds; we can pretty much stick together, we there to encourage and push each other throughout the entire workout. We might not be running side by side, but we are all in it together.

 As we finish warm up it starts to rain harder, and it is cold. Fortunately, our bodies are warm and our minds are numb (or maybe our bodies are numb and we are just out of our mind! It is hard to tell this early in the morning!) I grab a quick sip of water and start on the speed work, 800 fast (that is two laps around the track). “I am only going to do three,” I tell myself. Knowing full well I will do all four in the end. But somehow pretending I am going to do less makes me feel better.

 As I complete the first hard 800 and settle into the easy 400, I started reminiscing about college, when I would get up early in the morning to head to the pool for practice. I swam all four years at West Virginia University on a scholarship, so practicing early in the morning was something “I had to do.” But now, 20 years later, I am running around in circles (strangely similar to swimming up and down the pool) on a cold, dark, rainy morning, by my own free will! My how times have changed! I start my fast 400, trying to focus on my speed. By the time I finish the first set, it is raining hard, the rain drops stinging a bit as they hit my face.

 It is still raining as I finish up my third set, but I am in a groove and don’t mind quite as much now. I am almost done, that is all that matters now, the finish line is in sight! I start my final set and run by the others taking their break between sets, “Great job” they yell, as I run past, which gives me that little boost I need to get through the final set. Finally I am done, I am breathing hard, I am wet and steam is pouring from my body, emphasizing the extreme temperature difference. The rain is beginning to slow as I start my cool down laps. Within minutes we have all finished the hard part of the workout, once we are all together we let out a little victory “WHOOP” and finish our laps. We gather our things and head back down the trail to our cars.

 As we head home, we talk about our plans for the day, what we have going on and plan our next run. I start cooling down and I am getting cold, but I am exhilarated by the workout and love sharing this with such great friends. I know there was no way I would have stepped out my front door on a cold, rainy morning,  if it wasn’t for my  friends waiting for me and there to encourage me. Track is a necessary evil, but I guess really it is not all that bad! Until next Wednesday!