No Foolin'

If it's Tuesday then it's repeats at Roxborough......no seriously that's not a joke cos trust me taking the subway from work in North Philly to Center City to catch a bus out to Roxborough to hit the track b4 then bussing back to 30th St and taking the trolley home to West Philly is a hike and a half.....that said if it's what I have to do to get a weekday repeat session in then so be it.

No falling snow this week,sunny and warm when I arrived at the track by 4.40pm,a smattering of people walking/jogging on the track as I did my mile warm up but off to my left a group of  CYO runners gathered w/ their coach each year I'm out here at this time of year I have to deal w/ them as they prepare for Penn Relays and they always  cause me a problem.......today would be no different!!!
Having gone the 4x1 mile/5x1,000m route last week this week the plan was 6x600m today followed by 8x300x200x300m Saturday b4 switching back to 4x1 mile/5x1,000m next week and so forth this way I can gauge my progress over the weeks at each repeat and make alterations if need be,my last set of 6x600s came way back on Jan 20th 10 weeks ago when I went:
1.14-37=1.51.1 1.18-38=1.56.2 1.19-40=1.59.0 1.28-40=1.58.5 1.23-42=2.05.3 1.22-41=2.03.5
anything better today would be a step in the right direction but other than that I hadn't given any thought to what I might run,come repeats end maybe I need to keep that mindset for my other upcoming repeats.....

#1 600m
1.13-37=1.50.5
As is my won't w/ repeats I went out hard on the opener{on Jan 15th I opened w/ 1.14-35=1.49.8}b4 "shiiting the bed" would I need a bedpan by the end of this repeat or could I keep my sheets???

#2 600m
1.13-37=1.50.5
Ok back to back 1.50s not too shabby but the 64 billion dollar question was how long could I keep this up?

#3 600m
1.14-38=1.52.2
The fact I'm now putting in consistant 40 mile training weeks and getting into a routine w/ repeats so sadly lacking during the winter is paying off,suddenly thoughts of keeping all six repeats at sub 1.55 was not a far fetched notion......

#4 600m
1.16-38=1.54.3
Ah that familiar feeling of lactic acid choking the life out of my leg muscles as I try my damnedest to keep myself on pace how I've missed you!!!

#5 600m
1.17-37=1.54.9
I knew at 400m I had to give it "some welly" over the closing 200m if I was to stay on pace for my 6xsub 1.55 and somehow I found the spirit to do so,no mailing it in today,no folding the tent and saying next time,c'mon one more!!!

#6 600m
???-??=1.54.5
B4 I launch into a tiraid about those little CYO bastards let me stay positive and say despite not seeing my 400m split and thus having to run the final 200m "blind" I managed a 6th sub 1.55 600m and that was really all that mattered.

Ok let me state "for the record" just because I'm  a three time National Champion and two time 5th Avenue Mile champion that I don't expect to "call dibs" on lane one any time I'm on a track doing repeats.....what I do expect however is a little track etiquette from others.
While I appreciate that the CYO Coach was working on hand offs w/ his group in the outer lanes those not involved chose to congregate in lane one despite several requests from him to "stay out of lane one" granted he dosen't have eyes in the back of his head but on the last three or four of my 600s I was constantly having to swing out wide into lane 2 and on #6 I whad to swing out into lane 3 to avoid them which is why I missed my 400m split.
I don't want to be "that guy" who plows into a bunch of kids standing on the track to "teach them a lesson" but I also want to be able to come to a track and get my repeats in w/out having to "mark my territory" chance are I've got to deal w/ them the next two Tuesdays prior to Penn Relays but over 4x1 mile repeats next week it's not all speed related like the 6x600m where each second counts.

I'm delighted w/ the overall outcome of this workout,I couln't have imagined going 6x sub 1.55 but I did...the trick now is to go faster in two weeks time when I revisit 6x600m