Track Jams

The track training plan was seemingly doomed yesterday. After a forgetful Friday of failing to phone and check out the bookings we arrived at 10am to find coach loads of kids being emptied out at Carnegie... the tiny little ant-type creatures were crawling all over the place for their school sports day and would have presented a serious squishing hazard. After a bit of dithering we discovered the little blighters had taken over South Leeds track too;  the planned session just wasn't going to happen. 

The drive to Seedhill was just too far in the wrong direction and the morning was hotting up as we panicked thinking what to do. At this point I should confess that we were less than keen to stray too far from the most-wonderful-deli-in-the-world. It makes the best, most gooey and chewy chocolate brownies that are, by far the finest reward  for the virtuous afterglow of a tough track sesh. So, some quick thinking took us to the Uni playing fields for some grass intervals. I revisited the site of an old cinder track, (now rugby pitch) that was incidentally the venue for my first school 800m medal...

The track target had been 14x400m reps with a short recovery and pacing at 75s. We opted for 75s intervals with the same short recovery, though a bit of adjustment on speed would be needed for the howling wind, the blazing sun and the change of terrain; the not quite so springy grassy grass lacks the bounce and mesmeric feel of the track.

I was glad to have Ms company as we set out at a pretty fair lick, sub 5 minute pace felt extra tough in the conditions. The efforts rolled on and by number 10 we were both feeling spent. We pushed to 12 before drawing an end to the session. My absence from grass training was taking its toll as the funny sore bit of my right foot that caused my DNF in the winter XC came back to grumble at me. A good session in any case with reps all on target; encouraging given the conditions. I've even created a pretty chart just to celebrate. The post run cake was well deserved.