Bonnie, Dean and I met the McMillan team at Buffalo Park for a hill circuit workout.
We warmed up 2.5, then I stretched while they did drills and strides, and I tried to join in on that jazz a bit, though I feel foolish trying to do their strides. Trina taught me two of them, so I tried to do them. Can I say that starting a workout at 8:30 because you met at 8am is SO HOT, especially at altitude. I guess I am just a wuss, but I was hot. Doing the circuit with me was Stephanie, Heim, Emily, Ian (Greg's ultramarathon coach), and me. We were to do this 2 mile loop 3-4 times, doing the uphills along with a long crest hard, striding harder on the downhills, and jogging most of the flats, though there was also a stride on one flat part. Greg was discussing it with Stephanie and saying each loop would be 11-12 minutes (11-12 minutes, when there are supposed to be jogging parts???? I was concerned after hearing that). We were all able to stick together for the first 2 mile loop. I am not used to having witnesses to my workout, but Coach was there along with other spectators/athletes including Dean, at a couple of points in the loop. In the second one, I was able to keep in touch with Stephanie, who was either with or just behind Heim. She'd get a second or two ahead on the hills, then I'd catch up on the easy parts. Before we started the big hills at the start of the third loop, Emily and Ian had dropped off, and I didn't catch up after the last stride, so I started the hill with Stephanie and Heim about 5-10 sec ahead. After attempting the hill alone for 100m, I realized I would be stinking it up alone, so jogged up it. I met Stephanie and Heim at the halfway point of the loop and jumped in again to do my third loop. Stephanie only did 3 so I had both her and Heim for the first half of my last loop, and Heim ahead of me on the last half. I kept up pretty decently, other than taking half a loop off for a break. The workout was definitely harder for me than for Heim and Stephanie, their "jog" paces showed that. I know I would have been able to keep up much better if I had been used to the altitude, so that felt good. Moral victory! Splits for the hard parts were between 6:39-7:11, which includes hard and easy parts. PM: 4.5 miles with Bonnie in the afternoon. So nice to have an uninterrupted conversation. We went out to a nice restaurant in the evening, such good food, and we pretty much closed down the restaurant, nice to have an uninterrupted 3 hour adult conversation with two intelligent and interesting friends.
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