Chasing a speedster!

Monday evening a friend of mine who is a much faster runner than I am, sent me a text to see if I wanted to join her for some hill work.  Of course!  How could I pass up the opportunity to run with someone faster than me, and someone who really makes me work hard.    So we made our plans for Tues. am.  As we were driving to our meeting spot, the rain starts.  No worries - no lightning - so we are good to go.  We put on our hats and head for the hills.  The problem with running with someone who is much faster than you is that you will most likely warm up much too fast.  We warmed up for 2 miles at .... well..... basically....at my tempo pace.  Yikes! 

The plan was to w/u for 2 miles,  6 X 800 with 2 min. recovery,  on a slightly rolling hills circle, in the Trace subdivision, and 2 miles c/d. ( I was really thankful that the 800 circle was not on the worst of the hills in the Trace) After the FAST (for me) w/u, I was a little nervous about surviving the 800s.  As we get ready to start the 800s, I officially let T. know that I will be running my pace and let her know to, of course,  run as she needs to .... FAST.   She is accustomed to running with slower runners, so it's not an issue.  She takes off, and I follow at my pace. 

You see, not only am I running with someone who is much more talented, but to add to that, I have been running 200s, and 400s on the TRACK.  For this workout, not only am I jumping up to 800s, but also moving from the track to the hills.  Yes, let me document for the umtenth time,  hills - yikes - but this is the type of workout that I NEED the most.   I've been working on the 200s/400s because my speed is nonexistent after months of no speed work, and I want to try to run some better 5ks this fall.  For me to run faster 5ks,  I need the shorter speed work.   BUT.....I ALWAYS need hill work. 

Back to the workout... I averaged 3:52 for the 800s.  Fabulous!  I forgot my Garmin, so I can't say for sure it was a "true 800", but either way, it was a great workout.  I ran hard.  I ran with more effort than I would run solo.  I always love to have a rabbit out front.  Even though I know, I will never catch the rabbit, I continue to try to,  not let the distance get too wide between me and the rabbit.  And today, my goal was to try not to "BE LAPPED"  Success!  I was not lapped, T. was only 1 minute ahead of me.  lol!    When we finished, we started the cool down together, but lemme just say.... I was DONE.  Shortly into the cool down, I let T. go, so that I could officially cool down at a responsible pace for me.  We both had a GREAT workout, and we were both happy to have company for this tough workout.  The best part - we had sprinkling rain during the w/u, and the c/d.  Nice!

Two-a-day Tues. - Tues. evening we had our second Trek The Trace - 2 mile predicted time run.  After the am workout, I wasn't sure what I could do, but I was sure I was NOT "racing" it.  I decided to put down the same time that my friend V. put down, and HOPE that I would be able to stay with her.  I warmed up for 1 mile - feeling that am workout, for sure.    We put down 16:50.  Again, let me say, I have no, notta, zero concept of pace without Mr. Garmin.  Late into the race, as I am running with V. she asks "do you think we are close?"  Ha Ha....I have no idea.  We continued on.  I was pleasantly surprised because this felt like a tempo run.  We are not sure about the time, but supposedly we ran 15:34.   V. and I both felt that we may not have run that fast, but if we did....GREAT!  I'll take a 15:34 after that am workout any day.   Either way, it was another great workout for the day, and it was fun to run the race with V.

Tonight, my hubby joined us and ran the race.  He ended up winning the predicted time being off by 1 second.  He predicted 11:30, and ran 11:29.  Sweet!   He won a yoga book for me.  He is great at pacing!

 Chad and me at the TTT

(Thanks for the pic Robbie)

Two a Day Tues = Success!

My friend over a Run 4 It took some pics at the TTT.  Check them out.