A Day at the Track

This past Monday I hit the local high school track for some intervals with a friend (for the purposes of this post we’ll call him Carl - not his real name). My training schedule called for some 4 x 400m speed sessions which may not seem like very much but that’s because I have the Georgetown Half coming up on Saturday and my training is a little less intense this week so that I can be well rested. My goal pace for the 400m intervals was a 7:25 minute/mile pace, and I really tried to hold myself to that pace but I just couldn’t do it. I don’t know if it was the fact that we were only doing 4 x 400s or if it was because Carl was there running with me, but I ran my 400s a lot faster than normal. I discovered when I got home that during those 400m intervals I averaged a 6:50 minute/mile pace. Thanks Carl! Oh, and sorry about calling you Carl in this post (I think he hates that, but that’s just the kind of friend I am).

Also of note at the track on Monday I got my first ever bloody nipple (pictured right). It’s not nearly as rewarding as I thought it would be. Normally I wear Under Armour compression shirts when I run to combat nipple chafing but I didn’t on Monday because it was just a short workout. The high school football field was being watered on Monday night while we were there and an errant sprinkler soaked Carl and I on almost every lap. I guess it was like the perfect storm of conditions to give me a bloody nipple. Hopefully it is fully healed by Saturday because it’s really detracting from sexytime with my wife.

If any of you have any other suggestions for preventing chafed nipples I welcome them in the comments as long as you don’t say Band-Aids. The last time I tried Band-Aids they fell off as soon as I started to sweat.

Responding to Your Comments
Nikki asked in the comments of yesterday’s post how I managed to be so consistent with my pace on my long runs. I actually use the digital training partner on my Garmin and set him to a pace just faster than what I want. I play a game where I let him get out ahead of me over the first few miles which helps me to start slower. During the middle miles I try to remain the same distance behind him and over the last 3-4 miles I try to catch him. Truth be told I didn’t pass him on any of my long runs last month, but I have been running negative splits, ending somewhere around an 8:50 minute/mile pace.

Viper’s comment on yesterday’s post has me in quite a state of confusion. At first I thought it was sarcasm, but it really didn’t have that kind of tone to it. Could it be that Viper was simply being encouraging? Of course not! Obviously he was trying to jinx me by saying that I was going to break his PR! Well it won’t work, because I don’t believe in jinxes either!