Work Out

Olympia, WA - Yeah, baby, work it out.

I ran my first workout of the year AD 2009 tonight after a sturdy spaghetti supper and a few long hours spent in Olytown this afternoon on what would best be described as a whim.

Three blocks down Tullis Street I decided that, instead of my usual Capitol loop, I should double back to my house, grab my watch and hit up the track at Reeves Middle School for the interval workout that has been haunting me ever since I made my commitment to mediocrity back in December of last year.

I held true, perhaps to the detriment of my long-term mental health, with a 6x400m at :80 seconds with equal rest workout on a dark, muddy, messy, puddled, slick and thin track.

Going on, old pride told me that I might be able to crank out a few :75s to close out shop, or even extend the session to eight repetitions, but after 900m my body told me the truth.

Still nothing beats the feeling of the middle section of that second rep, when your body knows the pace but still has ignorance enough not to fear it.

I was able to hit :79 for my first two reps, followed by an :81, two :80s, and finally an :82 that made me realize it was probably in my best interest to stop the watch and just head on home.

The first 400m made me know my pace, and by the end of the second I knew to alter my form. Not in order to accelerate on the turns or power through the puddles, as I may have done once upon a time, but rather to maximize efficiency and do the least amount of work possible to reach the goal of an eighty second quarter mile.

O, how times have changed.

But one can never be too unhappy with a completed workout, especially if one shares the current relative lack of fitness that I have.

After six I walked to the end of the track then, crossing paths with the early stragglers from the middle school gym's Monday rec volleyball league, jogged up the parking lot and down Quince Street on a path that would bring me down and around Bigelow Park before returning to my house with a complete cool down.

I strutted around my kitchen in tights and a t-shirt, warmed up some food, drank some water, cleaned and took a shower.

A circle, more or less, but still it starts from a very low point.