The Rat Race

I have been using my running as a bit of an escape from the grind of daily life, the dreaded "Rat Race," as well as the harder events of 2009.

So, I was a bit amused to see a creature on my walk to start doing intervals ... a rat! Hmmm, LA Roadrunners training and I see a rat? An omen?

Anyways, I caught a break in the now seemingly endless rain in Southern California Wednesday night and headed to Clover Park for intervals. This time four intervals of 7:30 with two minutes of rest/slower movement in between.

I use the park as it gives me a semi-track and it just seems suited for the job.

It was actually nice with semi-clearing skies and fresh-smelling air.

I set out on Round 1 ... not bad. Round 2 ... not bad again. I was falling into the start fairly fast trap; but, the electronic conscience that is my Garmin 305 , helped.

Round 3 was a bit harder and a little soreness in my knee. Round 4 came and I got it done.

I had actually been wary of running on wet cement and grass (forget a sore knee; a fractured ankle, etc. is a real problem for finishing the Los Angeles Marathon) and thought my times would be a lot worse; but, I did pretty well, even allowing for some slower times on turns.

This week I never got into a cadence (i.e. like last week's "Vamos a la Playa"); so, that was not so fun. On the other hand, I did get some of the old sprinter feeling back as I did the classic arm movements for taking turns at relative speed (slow by the old days; fast for now).

Anyways, I got it done safely. I was also happy as the senior pace leader had said a good target would be a minute faster than race pace (so, 9:30 vs 10:30). The improvement area is just narrowing the time difference a bit.

Round 1 9:14 pace 7:34 of running 0.82 miles
Round 2 9:17 pace 7:41 of running 0.82 miles
Round 3 9:26 pace 7:48 of running 0.82 miles
Round 4 9:23 pace 7:46 of running 0.82 miles