Friday, July 16, 2010

Running Camp

So several of the guys in the neighborhood run for the High school track and cross country teams.  They are away this week at Running camp.  Before they left we talked and they told me that they were scheduled for 55 miles for the weeks.  Little girls.  I told them that my Docotor friend was off this week and we were going to have our own little running camp this week and really get in some miles.  So they old man training camp has went well and we have had some great fun.  We should both hit the low 60's and I can feel it.

This morning consisted of an 8 mile run with 3 1/2 miles of tempo.  The air was thick and humid but we had yesterday off and were ready for the challenge.  The first three miles were nice and slow with around a 8:30 pace.  The plan was to run a 45 minute tempo run at half marathon pace.  Problem was we weren't that great at communicating to each other exactly what that pace was going to be.  So we hit our start mark and we were off. 

Now the route was my normal battlefield tour road loop which would consist of a 3 1/2 mile lollypop loop that had some decent rolling hills.  We took off at a 7:30 pace and were superisingly consistant.  My friend and I both are very good at maintaing even paces so they was no pulling or tugging on the pace.  Basically stride for stride smooth running.  The thing that I did notice was the difference in the breathing techniques that we both had.  I breath faster almost in cadence with my stride while my buddy breathes deeper and slower.  I mean how many variables are there really in this equation, is fast breathing better than slow?  Mile 1 of the tempo portion, 7:29 split.  I felt the effort but I still felt strong.  The rolling hills seemed to glide under my feet.  Mile 2, 7:31 spilt.  Everything was fine until we hit that last long slow grade.  It was about mile 2 1/2 and I just went anerobic.  My breathing went nuts but I would slack off on the pace.  That's what's greater about running with an evenly matched buddy, you can really puch each other.  I finally made it to the top of the hill and tried to recover but it wasn't happening.  It was about a mile to the end of the loop and I was just hanging on.  I would glance over and I could tell that my friend was hurting but he wasn't goning to slack off.  (NOTE: My friend is 10 years older than I am and he is an awesome athlete.)

When I saw the bridge that served as the end of the lollypop loop I told him that was it.  I knew that another hill was around the turn and there was no way.  We eased up and walked and I thought I was going to pass out.  I could just feel the mitochondria growing in my cells.  I am getting stronger with each workout and it's really cool feeling the difference.  We slowly jogged the last mile and a half in and I was literally craving my Endurox.

Great run Doc!

No comments: