Tough Workout
Brian and I met David Minken at Bear Creek Park this morning, as well as Steve, for at least a 10 mile marathon tempo run, preceded by a 1.5 mile warm-up, and followed by at least a 1.5 mile cool-down. Not that you can "cool down" by running in August. That always strikes me as a misnomer.
Steve Bezner joined us for the warmup, which was supposed to be at a 7:30 to 8 min. pace. Not even close. More like 7:10 I'm guessing. Bez peeled off when we hit Highway 6 and the official beginning of our 7 minute or better pace for at least the next 10 miles began.
Mink and I were dropping 6:45 miles and just couldn't seem to dial it back to 7, though I would have felt better if we had. Brian and Steve began to drop back after a couple of miles, but I was determined to hang with David. He'd personally asked Steve and I to join him because he figured if anybody would be up for some pain it would be the two Striders from Sugar Land. If he wanted to run alone he wouldn't have invited us so I knew he wanted some company and someone to "spread the pain around", as he said. So the last thing I wanted to do was cry uncle and let him go on alone. It wasn't the pace, just the damned humidity. Made it tough to breath.
We made the turn at the 5 mile Chevron stop after a quick splash and sip. As is customary for me, I don't stop the watch when I stop for a drink on a training run. When they start stopping the clock for my water breaks in races maybe I'll think about it. Anyway, Brian and Steve weren't far behind us and actually cut the distance a bit and turned just before the gas station, so they were out in front of us again. I thought they might hang for a while, and Brian did, but dropped back before long. We hit another water stop a few miles further into the return and there came Brian. I learned later that Brian never stopped for water. We caught and passed Brian again, but he wasn't too far behind us when we hit Highway 6. David said that his Garmin always reads about 5 miles to the Chevron plus 5 miles back, but Bez's gizmo consistently shows 10.25. I'm gonna go with Bez's number, primarily because my watch read 1:13 and change when we supposedly hit 10 miles. That's a 7:18 pace, which I don't buy. David and I were consistenly running 6:45 to 6:50 miles, and even though we briefly stop a few times I can't imagine it affected our time that significantly. The 10.25 figure works out to something like 7:07, which is probably closer to reality.
David and I continued on with the 6:45 to 6:50 pace as we made our way into the final 1.5 miles. We were both spent and David said, "let's make it to 11 miles and we can slip into cool-down pace". Sounded like a winner to me. I asked how much farther that would be and he replied, "about half a mile". I started picking off benchmarks to get me through that final .5. When David's Garmin finally clicked at 11 he said, "let's make it to the next gate". Well of course I couldn't quit now. What I didn't know was that David knew that from the next gate we'd be able to see the parking lot where our cars were. How can you quit when you can see your car, even if it's half a mile away? His little ruse worked and we hammered that last half mile, probably around a 6:35 pace I'm guessing. Or maybe it was 7 and felt like 6:35!.
We made it into the parking lot and saw Steeeve S. who was heading out for his long-run. We chatted briefly and then went on a cool-down. As we headed back the way we came we saw Brian coming in. He joined us for the cool-down but disappeared a few minutes later. I found out later that he headed to the car because he was worried about Steve and wanted to go see if he needed a ride. David and I bumped into Andrew Keller and joined in with him for a mile or so before Brian came driving up to tell me he was going out for Steve. I told David good run, asked him how far we'd gone to that point (15.3, or probably 15.5 to be accurate) and jumped in with Brian. We saw Steve about half a mile back into the run and he was fine. There was a high school cross-country team out there and Steve stopped to talk to the coach.
It was a decent run with a great guy today, and of course my two regular workout buddies in the mix as well. Looking forward to more game-face training runs with Mink in the future.
Steve Bezner joined us for the warmup, which was supposed to be at a 7:30 to 8 min. pace. Not even close. More like 7:10 I'm guessing. Bez peeled off when we hit Highway 6 and the official beginning of our 7 minute or better pace for at least the next 10 miles began.
Mink and I were dropping 6:45 miles and just couldn't seem to dial it back to 7, though I would have felt better if we had. Brian and Steve began to drop back after a couple of miles, but I was determined to hang with David. He'd personally asked Steve and I to join him because he figured if anybody would be up for some pain it would be the two Striders from Sugar Land. If he wanted to run alone he wouldn't have invited us so I knew he wanted some company and someone to "spread the pain around", as he said. So the last thing I wanted to do was cry uncle and let him go on alone. It wasn't the pace, just the damned humidity. Made it tough to breath.
We made the turn at the 5 mile Chevron stop after a quick splash and sip. As is customary for me, I don't stop the watch when I stop for a drink on a training run. When they start stopping the clock for my water breaks in races maybe I'll think about it. Anyway, Brian and Steve weren't far behind us and actually cut the distance a bit and turned just before the gas station, so they were out in front of us again. I thought they might hang for a while, and Brian did, but dropped back before long. We hit another water stop a few miles further into the return and there came Brian. I learned later that Brian never stopped for water. We caught and passed Brian again, but he wasn't too far behind us when we hit Highway 6. David said that his Garmin always reads about 5 miles to the Chevron plus 5 miles back, but Bez's gizmo consistently shows 10.25. I'm gonna go with Bez's number, primarily because my watch read 1:13 and change when we supposedly hit 10 miles. That's a 7:18 pace, which I don't buy. David and I were consistenly running 6:45 to 6:50 miles, and even though we briefly stop a few times I can't imagine it affected our time that significantly. The 10.25 figure works out to something like 7:07, which is probably closer to reality.
David and I continued on with the 6:45 to 6:50 pace as we made our way into the final 1.5 miles. We were both spent and David said, "let's make it to 11 miles and we can slip into cool-down pace". Sounded like a winner to me. I asked how much farther that would be and he replied, "about half a mile". I started picking off benchmarks to get me through that final .5. When David's Garmin finally clicked at 11 he said, "let's make it to the next gate". Well of course I couldn't quit now. What I didn't know was that David knew that from the next gate we'd be able to see the parking lot where our cars were. How can you quit when you can see your car, even if it's half a mile away? His little ruse worked and we hammered that last half mile, probably around a 6:35 pace I'm guessing. Or maybe it was 7 and felt like 6:35!.
We made it into the parking lot and saw Steeeve S. who was heading out for his long-run. We chatted briefly and then went on a cool-down. As we headed back the way we came we saw Brian coming in. He joined us for the cool-down but disappeared a few minutes later. I found out later that he headed to the car because he was worried about Steve and wanted to go see if he needed a ride. David and I bumped into Andrew Keller and joined in with him for a mile or so before Brian came driving up to tell me he was going out for Steve. I told David good run, asked him how far we'd gone to that point (15.3, or probably 15.5 to be accurate) and jumped in with Brian. We saw Steve about half a mile back into the run and he was fine. There was a high school cross-country team out there and Steve stopped to talk to the coach.
It was a decent run with a great guy today, and of course my two regular workout buddies in the mix as well. Looking forward to more game-face training runs with Mink in the future.
posted by Lance Collins at 12:32 PM
5 Comments:
You gotta watch that Minken.
He's the devil in disguise ;o)
you guys are WARRIORS!
Dude that's awesome in some nasty conditions! Looking forward to more in the future!
Lance,
The pleasure is all on this side of the blog. Before the meeting on Tuesday I had made a special point to talk with you and Steve about this run. Your guy's hard working, make no excuses reputation preceeded you. What motivated me from slowing down was I did not want you to think, "damn, this guy asks me to come out for an intense run and he is starting to drive Ms. Daisy over there..what the eff?!!" So, I was forced to keep the throttle down!
As for that last mile, it was our fastest - so nice finish!
I am looking forward to cranking more miles with you, Brian, and Steve!
Minken is tough, Lance gave him a run for his money and Brian was right there. I was whipped and spent the rest of the weekend battling an upper respiratory thing. I will be ready for Monday tempo's run and look forward to redemtion on that course.
SteveS
Great job, all!
We've measured Hwy 6 to Chevron a bunch of times and a bunch of ways over the years, and I make it 10.25 miles.
Steeeve
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