Repetition: is it monotony or rhythm?

Last night I attended my first real track workout. A few weeks back I attended a fake-ish track workout as the school was having some sort of sporting event so the track workout was actually on a trail instead. Although mentally I knew I've been needing to incorporate track workouts if I want to get faster, I was intimidated about trying it. If you throw me in a pool, I can come up with a workout. I know what workouts should include in the pool, I know pool etiquette, and I fee like I am in my domain, but I was afraid tracks would be full of people that were extremely fast, doing workouts I didn't understand and that I would just be fumbling around getting in people's way. Fortunately my running friends, especially Andy and Adam, have been encouraging me to go, one with advice on what to do as a workout and the other in the form of literally dragging me out to these weekly workouts with DC Road Runners (including rides to and from so I can't wuss out).

And to my surprise, it turns out I really enjoyed working out on the track. Although it's a different arena than the pool, the repetitive nature and fixed distances to track speed/distance/relative effort was familiar to me from swimming. I know a lot of people complain that swimming laps in a pool is boring and monotonous because you are just going back and forth in the same line and nothing really changes, but I find it soothing, rhythmic, and a way to relax my mind, and that is how I felt on the track too. I felt in control, calm, and focused like I do when I swim. There is something very comforting in knowing exactly where you are going, how far you have to go for each set, and being able to break down these goals into smaller units (laps in a pool or around a track). Silly me having been such a wuss all these months and not starting sooner!

For people unfamiliar with a track, the loop around is 400 meters and 4 laps equals a mile. Although I met up with people from a group, I decided to do my own workout as suggested by the Chicken Tender Runner himself. I started with a 400 warm up and was running with a couple of guys. We started kind of fast and I knew it was too fast for me if I didn't want to crash and burn, so I told them I had to slow down if this was just a warm up. I didn't want to make the same mistake I made over the weekend, and I am glad I did.

Then I did 3x1 Mile repeats at my goal 10k race pace with 400 recovery in between each mile. One of the guys stuck with me for the work out. I could feel at first that he seemed a bit restless because he maybe wanted to go a bit faster, but I knew if I did that, I would ruin things for the later miles. I am glad I stuck to my guns because I started off a bit slower but went faster with each mile and felt stronger in each one too.

Here is my average pace for each mile: 9:38; 9:34, 9:26. 

Not an actual 'Action Shot'

Pretty good descending set, and then followed by an 800 cooldown, for a grand total of 4.25 miles that really felt like the flew by. If it hadn't been for people waiting for me to go eat afterward, I would have done another mile repeat. But as you are aware, I am also a social being, so I had to finish up so I could then hang out, eat wings and share a pitcher. 

Now I have signed up for Jingle All the Way 10k in December, so I need to make sure I can keep those paces up for 6.2 miles and break and hour. I might also do a 10k before that while visiting my family this coming week, but I wouldn't particularly "race" that one since I want to do it with my brother and sister-in-law, so it would be more of a fun, group run. This kind of fits into my new grand plan of trying to convince my brother to sign up for a triathlon. He was quite the high school athlete and in addition to his soccer skills would run track and cross country in the off seasons to maintain fitness for soccer and ran the LA Marathon way back in the day. My mom told me his good friend and boss is into triathlons and that a new pool opened up, so it seems like all the puzzle pieces are falling into place. The only tough part is he is also the father of 3 very adorable but very active sons, so a lot of his weekends and evenings are devoted to shepherding them to various sports practices and games of their own, but maybe I can get him to drink the kool-aid... at least for a Sprint to Olympic Distance race.