Amy vs. Track

Well, some battles are tougher than others.  I am always up for a challenge, so when I finished a few laps of the track to warm up, I realized this interval session was going to call on all of my energy stores.  The heat has been cranked back up to full in these parts, and my water bottle was already warm and the sweat was already collecting on myself and all of the other runners that braved the track on this Hot Tuesday evening.

I hate to sing, "I fought the track and the track won" but I think it was ringing in my head as I went around and around for each set.  Each poor, inconsistent set.  The numbers are as follows:

1600m--warm up
800m--3:02 = 6:06/mile
1200m--5:10 = 6:55/mile (ouch?)
800m--3:10 = 6:22/mile
1200m--5:12 = 6:58/mile
400m--0:89 = 5:58/mile (hmph)
800m--cool down

After a cool down, I went over the numbers in my head, decided that I had indeed gone out too quickly in the beginning (always a struggle for me) and couldn't get back on-track (mind the pun) for the two 1200s.  It was a good, sweaty time had by all, though.  It isn't every day that one gets to see their peers dumping bottles of water all over their own heads.  It was just that hot.

I rushed my cool down a bit, as I wanted to get to the soccer field in a hurry to watch my 3 year old's game.  He consistently sits on the sideline and picks weeds, or, more commonly, runs laps around (or through) the fields.  I think he will be more of a runner than a soccer star, but that may be wishful thinking.  I always get a bit of a run in at the games due to chasing him around, so it is all good, right?  Tonight (at the last game of the season) he actually played for a few minutes.  I was so proud.  He dribbled the ball (albeit toward the wrong net) and looked like he was having fun!  I knew there was a reason I put him in that uniform every week :)

In post-run snack news, I attempted to drink some Coconut Water after the track.  I heard (from my knowledgeable sister-in-law, Chrissy) that it is a good post-workout drink, as it has all of the good stuff that Gatorade has, but it is much higher in potassium.  I even tried a bit of hers last week and it was yummy and refreshing (not at all heavy or thick like you might expect).  Unfortunately, I must have bought a different flavour, or the heat was just throwing me off, because I couldn't drink more than one sip.  If anyone out there has tried Coconut Water post-run, let me know what you think!  I will make another attempt in the future, but for now I will be sticking to my Rainberry Gatorade :)

Keep cool out there!