Melancholy & Infinite Sadness

''But there are long long nites when I lay awake and I think of what I've done,of how I've thrown my sweetest dreams away and what I've really become
And however hard I try I will always feel regret,however hard I try I will never forget,I will never forget"
Bare The Cure

On to phase two of my training,after four weeks of getting my feet back under me w/ either solo miles or mile repeats it was now time to get some speed under my belt w/ 6 weeks of in and out 400m repeats and 5x1,000m and mile repeats b4 hopefully kicking on to phase three in early October,but let's not get too carried away w/ the future until the present has been taken care of.
This evening was my first in and out 400s in almost a year,coming hard on the heals of Fridays dramatic collapse in the mile repeats I was anxious to put that behind me and get off to a good start on my return to speed work.

After my stretches and half mile warm up it was into my flats for the first time since June 2nd for my 150s and 400s.
21.00.for my opening 150m,a pleasant surprise as I hadn't given any thought to what I might run,off my 250m jog I then clocked a 22.34. second 150m,last year in my opening in and out 400 repeat my opening 150s were 23.28-20.49.

Off of 3 mins recovery it was 400m time,again I hadn't given any real thought to the kind of splits I was shooting for it really was a case of throwing linguine at the wall and seeing what stuck.
400#1 60.83.w/150/100/150/splits of 22/12/26/
400#2 60.64.w/splits of 23/12/25/ almost identical splits.
400#3 62.00 w/ splits of 23/13/26/my arms were starting to feel tired,not only had I not worn flats since June 2nd but I had done short repeats either and my arms were feeling it.
400#4 64.93 w/ splits of 25/12/27/not earth shattering but I had to start somewhere and next Monday when I come back I'll have a legit target to chase after today,not that it's a fair comparison but last year my 400s were 58,59,59,60.

Now for the dreaded mile off of 7 mins recovery{last year I took 8 mins maybe I should've checked this b4 I ran??!!}
My splits were nothing to write home about but this mile was always meant to be about being able to dredge up a final lap faster than the first three laps,to that end I was successful as I went
1.40,1.31,1.35,1.25 to clock 6.11.26.again it's not really fair to compare this to last years opener which was 5.29.but like last year I had to start somewhere and come next Monday over 150,400 and the mile I'll look to build upon today.

Why the melancholy and mournful Cure lyrics?tomorrow is another Erica anniversary,on Aug 11th 1985 I came to Philly for the first time ever and on the 25th I reluctantly flew back to London knowing I was faced w/ another 7 months of being apart from my first love Erica,ours was a fairytale romance w/out a happy ending as we've been divorced for coming up on 21 years this November and as is often the case some years Erica anniversaries roll by w/out the blink of an eye,other years I shed a tear for a lost love,I guess this year it's the latter not the former.