Muddy Track

Gee, I'd love to write a detailed description of all the interesting stuff that happened at work yesterday...but nothing interesting happened. It was a beautiful day, so the moments I stared out the window were moderately enjoyable...but not necessarily blog-worthy. I had skipped my morning workout and had gotten to the office very early, so I was able to leave quite early as well. It was track night.

My legs were still a bit sore from Saturday's psychotic long run. And the track was muddy in spots, sandy in others. (Sometime over the Christmas break, I think they dumped a bunch of new dirt on the track; Pat described it last night as being like running on the beach.) Is it just me, or would you agree that it's a little odd to leave big ol' sasquatch footprints on a high-school running track?

Pat had twanged himself a bit attempting a backflip during his gymnastics class earlier in the day, so we were both cautious during our warmup. The plan was to do a ladder: 100m, 200m, 300m, and 400m...then repeating those distances back down. The goal was to go faster on the second set than we did on the first.

I still don't understand how Pat gets SO far in front of me in such a short time. Well, OK, that's not 100% accurate: I do understand that he "has better starts". But it's not like swimming, where your streamline upon entering the water has such a large impact on your start speed -- it appears to be more just a matter of taking your first two footsteps really really fast. And that doesn't seem to be part of my system functionality. It takes me some time to wind up to speed.

I am pleased to say, though, that at our top-end speed I seemed to be able to keep up with him. He'd get way ahead on the start, and would gain a bit more on me going around the curves. But I held my own on the straightaways, and finished within a handful of seconds behind him on each of the runs. I was quite happy with my own performance. And even more glad that I survived the sprints without blowing out my hamstring or mangling a knee. I think I'm actually starting to acclimate to these sprint practices. Cool.

So, here's my philosophical discussion question for the day: Would you rather be a sprinter, or a distance person?

I suspect that most sprinters would prefer to be sprinters, and most distance folks prefer their own nature as well. For me, I really hate getting passed at the end of a race, and think it would be really unpleasant to run out of gas and watch people go by. It doesn't bother me, though, to get left in the dust right out of the gate; I just think either "Well, more power to 'em" or "I'll reel 'em in after I get in my groove" and promptly stop thinking about them. Until later.

I bet that sprinters think "Ah, it's good to have speed! I pity th' fool who has slow-twitch muscles."

It's no wonder everybody hates them.

Hey, I jest, I jest. Nobody hates sprinters. I think people just feel sorry for them since they are unable to feel the endorphinal joy that a good long-distance set manifests. They'll never know the bliss of feeling stronger and stronger as the event progresses -- nor the euphoria that comes from passing the broken and spent bodies of those poor souls who took it out too fast.

Of course, in the case of my track workouts with Pat, well, I'm not going to be passing anyone. Being brothers, we probably have very similar genetic makeup. He's no more a natural sprinter than I am -- he's just faster in general. Plus, he's learned how to run those first two steps really fast, and I haven't.

Hmmm. Well, I'm not going to think too deeply about that, lest I be forced to acknowledge that there may be extra work I could do to correct my deficiencies. Instead, I'll just continue telling everyone that I had a good track workout last night. After all, the mud will wash off, and my legs will eventually recover. And anyway, tonight I'm planning to go run Red Rocks steps with Tanner. And if he beats me (as he almost certainly will), I can blame it on the @#$! sprinter's genes he got from his mother.

Oh well, I'll deal with it, and will let you know how it goes. Until then, have a great day!