This was another warm day here in Austin. We met up at RunTex at six as normal, and after a little chatting headed off to the Austin High School track for some circuit training. I ran over to the school with Tess, who’s on her third week with the Gazelle program, and we talked about goals, running, and the joys of training with such a fantastic group. All told, we had a nice run but kept the pace down to a very reasonable 9:10.

After our drills, the training started. The plan was to do 3-4 sets of 800M runs, followed by our standard regimen of high knees, push ups, crunches, back raises, standing jumps, and lunges. My goal was to really focus on form for the running portion, where its so easy to slide, and not to pause during the workout to catch my breath. I did the first 800M with Jay in 4:08, then headed into the steps. For the first time, all of my step-ups felt smooth, controlled, and very solid; all of this practice must really be paying off.

My heart rate had averaged 160 during the first two laps, and stayed stable during the exercises, but jumped up to 170 during my second 800M (also a 4:08, but done solo this time - its hard to keep the same pace with other people on a circuit workout). Nothing much changed for the second set of exercises either. I’m slightly embarrased that my third 800M dropped to a 4:18; I tried to take it easy but my heart rate stayed constant at 169 for the trek. These are great workouts, but somewhat uneventful.

I started in on my fourth set of 800s, but Gilbert summoned us over to the end zone for a couple of fast-feet repetitions. I really do enjoy these, as much as everyone loves to complain about them they do feel really nice, both when we do them and when we stop. There was nothing after that, we just got something to drink and headed back out to the cars.

The cooldown run was surprisingly slow, between a 10:30 and 10:45 pace, which is probably a good thing considering how much of a workout this can be. No hurry, no worries, just a nice way to start the morning. Tomorrow should be nice and easy, just 4 or 5 miles around the neighborhood park.

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