Thursday, April 12, 2012

Track Tuesday & The Weird Sisters

On the training calendar for this week's track workout was 3 x 1200m.  I've never done a 1200 before and I am ashamed to say that at first glance I thought it was LESS than one full lap.  200, 1200, what's the difference really?  Big difference.

So Jordanne, Lisa, and I headed to the track for Track Tuesday (Lisa's first track workout - you ROCK Lisa!).
This totally applies and is going to be my new logo for Track Tuesdays. source
So I finished my first two 1200's.  I only took a 400 of rest between the two and I think this was one of my big problems.  I was far from recovered when I started again.  This time I "lap buttoned" each of my 400's since last time I noticed my 2nd lap was faster than my 1st

1200's:
#1 - 5:23  -   400's within:  1:52 (7:22), 1:47 (7:06), 1:42 (6:49)
#2 - 5:24  -   400's within:  1:47 (7:04), 1:48 (7:03), 1:49 (7:12)

Interesting how the 1200's themselves were very consistent but the 400's within them were all over the place.

Then I felt like throwing up.  Or dying.  My legs felt like jelly.  It was not pretty.  It was suddenly so HOT and HUMID.  Wasn't I just complaining about the terrible weather?  I swear today was about 30 degrees warmer than last week's track workout.  Not exaggerating.  In reality it was probably 70 degrees tops but since I'm used to 40 degrees it was a big difference.

This was totally me after the 2 1200's.  source

I knew I didn't have another 1200 in me, even after taking a 800 of recovery.  So I decided to do a 400 or 2, hoping that if I could complete 3 of them at least I would have completed the same distance as my intended workout. 

400's
#1 - 1:47 (6:58)
#2 - 1:42 (6:39)
#3 - 1:39 (6:24)

And I did it!  And you know what?  On those last 2 400's, I felt like I went up a notch to a whole other level of speed I've never been on before.  Like I have been holding back a bit, and perhaps I can go faster than I think.  I am super proud of those last two 400's - those are my fastest 400's EVER and the first time I have ever reached my prescribed 1:41 goal from Run Less Run Faster. 

And 6.36 miles in 54:22 (AP: 8:33) were done!

I book news, I finished The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown, our book club book for May (I'm an overachiever).  Amazon summarizes it like this:

"The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there.  But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected."
 

I liked it!  It's nothing amazing, I'm not going to shout from the rooftops GO READ THIS BOOK, but at the same time, it was entertaining and an easy listen and I was interested in the characters.  I'm not a huge Shakespeare fan, in fact the extent of my Shakespeare knowledge revolves around Hamlet and possibly one other book we had to read in High School English class, but if you are a fan of Shakespeare I bet you would LOVE this book.  I'm sure there's tons of symbolism and references that my little pea-brain didn't even recognize.

As I already mentioned, it seemed similar to The Girl Who Chased the Moon and Garden Spells, my two previous reads, so I think it was just too much of the same type of writing / plot in a row.  But if I hadn't just read those two books, I think I would have liked it even more.  4 out of 5 stars! 

What are you reading now?  Anything new to recommend to me?  Did you do a track workout this week?  If so what was your workout and how did it go?

Comments (7)

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Great job at the track! No track workout for us this week, we need to add some speedwork again to our routine.

I just finished Mockingjay and I started Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan, so far it is pretty good and I think it will get better!
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Good job on your track work, yesterday.

I am performing track work, today. 10 x 400's are the plan. This is the first of 12 weeks to get ready for mynext marathon. Nervous, excited, and curious about my times. I have been doing a lot more tempo runs and road speed work. I am seeing results during my longer runs. Isn't that the point?
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Way to go on your speed work! I plan to do some of that myself today. It looks pretty nice outside:)
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1 reply · active 678 weeks ago
Oh my gosh it's soooo nice out today.� I have 17 miles on the agenda this afternoon and am terrified!� Good luck on your speedwork!
Those times are amazeballs! (Someone used that word the other day and I was totally reminded how awesome it is and now I want to use it for everything.)

Right now, I am reading Running Times magazine and Runner's World. Yeah, I need to branch out a little. For book club, I was SUPPOSED to be reading A Year on Ladybug Farm, but they had to change the meeting night, and now I'm going to miss it, which is totally fine since I never even cracked the spine on that bad boy.
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Good job...great times, too. I did my 800s today but I think they had me in tears by the 2nd one. I think next week I'll be trying out some hill repeats instead. I am a speed work wuss!!
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I am so impressed with your times. That is so AWESOME! Way to go!

What are these things books you speak of? I wish I had more time to read. There's just enough time in the day for me. I love reading and I know how important it is for me to modeling reading to my children, but every time I sit down to read a book, I fall asleep. No lie! I bet I would love a book with Shakespearean references too.
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