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Track 4x 500 + 200s with CA

June 18, 2015 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: warm (almost hot), BREEZY

Comments:
Just me and CA tonight. CA had a hella busy day and was running late, so I got there and ran solo on the track for a mile. She was clearly pretty stressed out when she arrived. Easy warm-up in warm but windy conditions. Some strides, then a grinder mile, each running solo. I ran about 6:08 (but the HR was pegging higher than desired). Felt good.

To preface, CA has stuck with me on EVERY thing we've ever run, from 200s all-out to ALT to Brown's hard. So I figured she'd be fine hanging with me for 500 + 200s around 5-flat pace. She was immediately worried about that, so was like, "OK, well let's just see how it goes".

On the grinder mile her stride looked fucking awesome, and I told her so. It's SO much better than six months ago (better compact stride, strong hips, strong & compact arms), but she was immediately (and somewhat uncharacteristically) negative! Ugh. I really want to make the track a "happy place" for us both, so this was definitely stepping off on the wrong foot.

Since she was worried about the pace, I said, "OK, well you just lead and do what you feel like", so she took off - HARD. We hit the 200 (into the wind) in <37 then she really fell off. We ran :95 for the first 500 (78 pace?), and she was clearly upset. Jogged 100m then did a 200: me in 34, her in maybe 38. Ugh.

So now she's all upset, and I'M upset because she is. I was exasperated, telling her that I'd rather we not do the workout at all than be negative. She's lamenting how slow and out of shape she is, and I'm trying to feed her perspective (e.g. being grateful we're both healthy, not worrying about pace..:) but none of it is working. Nonetheless, she wants to continue.

2nd set: same diff: out too fast, then falling off. Attitude - and paces - level off on the 3rd, which I lead. The last one might've been the most solid of them all.

The (approximate) splits:
95, 34
98, 33
96, 33
95, 33

Cool-down: got some more perspective. Apparently she was seriously PMS'ing today (not just mood, but tons of cramping, malaise, etc). She'd lightly mentioned something on G-chat early in the day but failed to let me know how truly shitty she'd felt going into the workout. That, and she was hella busy and stressed out. All in all, it was a perfect storm of awfulness going into this workout.

It was ultimately an OK day - and I felt pretty damn strong, albeit slow in the strong wind - but dang, she has a really hard time "comparing" - to her old self, and to others. I keep telling her, "It'll never be good enough", if that's how she values her running.

Had some right foot soreness - and overall B calf - in the workout. Worked really hard to be sure the right leg was doing its share. However, I THINK I'm still over-SWIVVING! Damn it!! Back was a little stiff post workout = tell-tale sign.