There is something about working out at night. Not sure what it is. You just feel faster I guess. But it also gives you an edge. It is the same as working out in the early morning hours and when it is freezing cold. Generally you are the only one out there making yourself better when you could be sleeping, watching TV, or doing a myriad of other things. Below I take a look at three recent workouts at night, two of which I actually ran at as well.
March 17I am at the Alumni Council Dinner, and I receive a text message. It is Artie seeing if I am available because he is going to do a workout. As is typical when Artie calls me to go running, I am either eating or just finish eating. Not that I am in shape to do a full workout with him, but more there to run a few of the intervals. The workout is 5 sets of 4x400 with 100m minute recovery between runs and a lap jog between sets. It was quite cold this evening and very windy, which means extremely windy if you are at the Penn State Outdoor Track. Artie did a great job in the workout. It was quite an impressive display. And what a great way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. And for verification the workout was completed before midnight by a few minutes so it is still credited to Friday.
March 24So a week passes, and here we are again, I am eating a roast beef wrap, and Artie is calling about doing a workout. I figured this would workout well, because I wanted to do a mini-fitness test to see where I was at in my training. Tonight's workout is scheduled to be 10x1000m. This one was starting at 8:40 p.m., so we would not be in danger of crossing over days. I arrive to the track later than I expect to, but I bring my flats in tow. After I warm-up, I do parts (400,600,400,600) of the last four intervals with Artie. It went ok. And it was still cold, but not as windy as the week before. It felt good to run hard again and workout on the track. Artie once again had another great workout and exceeded his expectations.
March 27So here we are again, but this time I am prepared. And I plan to eat a little something after practice to sustain me for the night's workout. On Monday the plan was 4-mile tempo on the track + 2x600m (I ended up doing 4x300m). So for this one I decided I would just do the whole thing at my pace and it would give me a solid idea of where I was at. My pacing was off a bit, but I only had one bad lap. It was first lap of the last mile, ironically, Artie's slowest lap was the same one. The weather was quite nice, somewhere between 40-50 degrees, but relatively no wind. I was pleased with my workout. I was able to do what I had hoped to, so that was a good sign. Artie said his workout went much better than last Monday. He said he ran faster than the previous Monday with less effort, which is always a good sign.
So what's next you ask? On Friday, the legendary Michigan workout is scheduled. It is 1600-tempo mile-1200-tempo mile-800-tempo-400(all out). I am not sure what my plan is for this one, but I will keep you posted. It should be a good one. Artie is pleased with his preparation for his upcoming 2006 outdoor season debut. He will be racing the 10k at the Penn Relays. As for my debut? Well there has been some talk of running the Coaches vs. Cancer 5k next weekend. We will see.
