Track workouts

Last night ran the team track workout on my own so that I could go play corporate later. I have never been fond of the longer distances. The workout was 2x200, 3x300, 4x400, 3x300, 2x200. I ran 35, 36, 60, 63, 63, 86, 87, 88, and then blew off the last 400 so I would be able to finish the workout, then 65, 68, blew off the last 300, then 37, 38. When I got home (10 minutes from the track), I was sweating profusely, and the nanny observed that I was beet red. I definitely still felt a little ill. Granted, it was also pretty hot and humid at the time, but still.

As I get older (38 and going), these longer distances really take their toll on me. I remember back in the early 90's when we were doing 4x3x400 and I would be spinning off 73-4's for every single 400. That is frankly inconceivable to me now. My longer distance times have slowly grown over the years. The biggest positive change in my conditioning was when Bryan Doo joined DoG in 2002(?). He is an excellent personal trainer now working with the Boston Celtics, and he ran agility workouts for us on Thursday nights (track on Tuesday). We were finally doing workouts that satisfied my requirements, which were enhancing quickness and short sprinting. Since then, we have continued to do the agility workouts, and they have definitely helped extend my career.

Interestingly enough, in the last few years, my personal performance at Nationals has continued to improve. I attribute this to the more useful conditioning due to the agilities workouts, the usual veteran wiliness, and because I have been throwing fewer long throws (fewer cuts, team de-emphasis, who knows). The competition with Wicks in the early aughts helped also as we competed for fewest turnovers, who could get through a day at Nationals without a turnover, etc.