The Warriors Code

On the day I finally saw"The Fighter" the Micky Ward story I dug deep myself to eek out not so much a 12 round decision but 12 400m repeats.
I've baulked at making the trek out to Lower Merion for the past few weeks due to the weather fearing it to be a wasted trip due to the snow but after the 800m at The Armory the other nite I knew I had to get my sorry butt on an outdoor track and soon to correct that error and since "The Fighter" was playing just a few miles up the main line on Lancaster Avenue I figured why not do both?

On my approach to Lower Merion's track I feared that the snow that had kept me at bay for weeks was going to scupper me....however upon closer inspection lane one of the track was clear,and unless any other ejit was fool enough to be out on a Sunday lunchtime to do repeats I was going to be in the clear.
Mile warm up taken care of it was have at it time,I'd have preferred to have been able to strip off a layer of clothing as my 400s begun but the harsh wind that blew across the track meant I'd be keeping my jacket and warm up bottoms on,sure I'd lose a second per repeat but at least I wouldn't catch a chill doing so.
400m #1 74.58.Not exactly how I wanted to kick off proceedings but I knew why #1 felt so comfortable....
400m #2 76.07.Christ so much for improving,I've heard of ring rust after 7 weeks but strewth!
400m #3 75.63.Marginally better but still well short of where I wanted to be,prior to my 7 week winter enforced repeat hiatus I was hitting 68s
400m #4 77.40.At this point I was seriously considering throwing the towel in,clearly this was not going to plan,quit and be pissed off?carry on and fight back,did Micky Ward throw in the towel?...did he fuck!!
400m #5 72.98.That's a little more like it,a combination of coming out swinging,learning to handle the wind along the back straight and slowly getting back in to the habit of working on knee lift.
400m #6 74.16.Did I speak too soon?
400m #7 72.82.Repeat after me,knee lift,knee lift,knee lift.
400m #8 72.92.Isn't that why they're called repeats???
400m #9 73.64.It's going to take a while for the fundamentals,knee lift,leg turnover,arms pumping to become second nature but this is a start.
400m #10 74.50.Uh oh I now had 3 72s and 3 74s and remarkably they'd all come in the last 6 repeats after a less than stellar beginning.
400m #11 72.67.Credit where credit's due this was new territory now in mid December I was only running 10x400m.
400m #12 70.90.Now that's the way to wrap up a repeat workout w/ the fastest repeat of the session.

Clearly there's a boat load of work to be done still but this is a step in the right direction and providing the weather gods take pity on me I should be hitting Lower Merion's track each weekend for the foreseeable future,and as long as that happens I'm prepared to stick my neck out and say March 18th's 800m at The Armory will be an improvement on Thursday's 2.06.
.....Oh Yeah "The Fighter" was really good too!