I know, isn’t it amazing? Getting up 15 minutes earlier to be at RunTex for a 5:45 start, now, that sucked. But while Wilke itself was hard, it wasn’t the soul-destroying workout it has been in times passed. We did the long warmup which is, oh, 2 1/2 miles or so, with the last mile on rolling hills; this was followed of course by our 1/2 mile of drills, then for me at least about 4 cups of Mango Clif Drink. Weird, but tasty, even if today’s mix was thinner than Saturday’s.

Then the hill. True to form this year, I didn’t wear a watch, so I can’t tell you how fast I did them. I know I was going pretty slowly by the end, but I was feeling stronger than last time; I never really felt like throwing up afterwards. Or walking. It was hard, but passable. I did stop for a quick water break after the fifth one, then pushed through for the last two. Normally he tells to do 7-10; this time we were only on the hook for 7, period.

Then we went backwards. What a difference! Usually I’m feeling alright for the backwards ones, but this time my quads were just burning at me; this may have something to do with our hilly long run on Saturday, but even so! The first one was rough, the second one easier but I still paused once or twice on the way back up. Oddly enough, Gilbert stopped us after two reps, and didn’t even have us do sprints up the top! That’s too bad really, I often dread the sprints but I’m fairly good at them, and they feel great afterwards.

I chatted with Coach for a couple of minutes after the workout about the difficulty I’ve been having with Gu lately, and he said that they do change the formulae every now and then, and that I should try some other brand. Time to go shopping, I guess, which is too bad because I’ve got about 40 vanilla bean GUs sitting at home. Ah, well, I’m sure someone will want them. That left me doing my cooldown run solo, which was just fine.

I surprised myself a little; some of the stronger folk were walking back! I passed them maybe 1/4 mile into the cooldown and kept going, feeling a little better about the day. I just stayed nice and easy, probably 9:30 pace, until the half mile mark, then picked it up a little bit (9:00 ish) for 1/4 mile, then ran hard in the last 1/4. I love that feeling! It gets even better when you realize that RunTex actually has PowerAde in some of the coolers, not just water, and you can down 4-5 cups of it. Very cool.

All in all, a successful workout. My core felt stronger, and my legs felt a little weak. So the goal for this week is to keep up my 2 core classes, and get at least one good weight day in for my legs.

Popularity: 3%