I am the pace car

Thursdays are track days at Stanford.

Basically every week we get together as a group, and run in circles until we're tired.  Yep. Sounds fun, doesn't it?  About 50 people gather at 6:15pm at the center of the track, and warm up together, catch up on what's going on in each other's lives.

This week's session was all about pacing - interval training to build endurance, and to find your consistently comfortable race pace.  Start up, warm up, jog leisurely for 4 laps, and then break into waves.  I'm in the third wave, which means the fastest group.  This is for the sub-ten-minute mile runners, which surprisingly for the group isn't that large.

So anyhow, the objective here was to pick your pace and stick with it for the entire evening.  Twice around the track, 5 times, with 1 minute rest intervals in between.  I'm 2:03 every single time - to the point where the coaches are commenting on my consistency.  Woohoo... I am the pace car.

The interesting part was that afterwards, Sarah (one of the coaches) brought her friend Sarah, who's a personal trainer.  She took us through a bunch of isometric training exercises: squats, lunges, etc - all using body weight and keeping your core locked.  Yep, the IT band is tight again (preventing side lunges).  Gotta spend a few more hours rolling it.  Boy, that's fun.

That's about it for today's post.  Not all that interesting but I'm trying to keep the inertia.

In other unrelated news, Taco's in town for the weekend and Kevin's having a festival.  It should be good, following a Saturday morning run at the dish.  Oh, and a haircut.  God, I need a haircut.