Intervals!

My favorite part of triathlon training is speed running workouts (my least fave? Long bike rides. Is there a comfy seat in all of bikedom? My ass and my experience tell me no). Since moving to Houston and getting through my hardest training ever, I've been really great at getting in a good interval workout a week.

Intervals workouts are basically doing shorter distances at a fast pace--over and over. I think the purpose is to get your leg speed up, get your body used to going fast, and to learn to control your pace. I love intervals. I LOVE intervals. For example, my ideal Valentines Day happened this year and included a tough interval workout--then pizza and Law & Order. Anyway, I am a pretty consistent runner once I have my pace (about 1:45 to 2:00 faster than my typical run pace for speedwork). We used to do intervals twice a week when I ran in high school, and I miss the track, the camaraderierie of a team, and running until I felt a little sick... no matter how long you go, distance running will never replicate the greatness of wanting to heave 75% of the way through ½ mile intervals. Oh, sweet nostalgia.

Recently I've been running intervals with my coworkers once a week at a nearby high school track. It's fun to go fast, be on a track, and shoot the breeze between runs. I like it because I usually get to make most of the workouts and pick the pace; I don't know if my friends defer to me because I'm actually in training for something, I seem knowledgeable about speedwork, or they just don't care-- it doesn't matter to me though. I'm pretty easy to please when I get my way. :-) At any rate, I bailed on the group this week so I could run intervals on my own. I was really busy this week since I'm going out of town today, had a fantasy baseball draft last night and a Rockets game the night before that AND I've been trying to get in some extra workouts during the week so I can be out of town with as few workout obligations as possible. In this mess of overscheduling I thought it would be a good idea to go to the Y and do an interval workout at yesterday's lunchtime. After all, it would take less time than the swim I often get in during my lunch break, and that track is 1/6 of a mile-- something different from the normal ¼ mile jobbie.

By the way, this is the worst idea ever. I live in Houston and it's March. Yesterday it was in the low 80s with 70% humidity when I ran. Even so, I had a great--albeit sweaty--workout, maintaining that sweet 7:20 goal pace throughout the various 1/2, 1/3, and 1/6 mile intervals. I also got to stop between intervals instead of walking 100m, which is what my friends usually like to do. I like to just stop... it's hard to hunch over and fight off puking when you're walking a cool 100. Besides, I didn't have time for stuff like that.

Before I knew it, I was finished and quite pleased with my workout. I went up to shower and when I finished, I realized I was still hot and flushed. REALLY flushed. I dressed, left for the office, and headed to the mall to get some lunch before heading upstairs back to work. At Subway I had a hot flash while waiting to pay. ½ hour later I had another one at my desk. I broke out in a sweat at my boss's cube shortly after that, and sweat all the way through my coolmax shirt while spinning after work (usually I just sweat through 1/2 of it). I was perspiring through my fantasy draft and when I got into bed last night. I woke up sweaty this morning. I was sweaty getting ready for work, going to work, sitting at work, running an errand, eating my breakfast. Finally, I completely cooled off about 11:00 AM today, 23 hours after I finished intervals. How foul is that? I am officially the grossest person alive.

On a positive note, I got some more sun during my run. Today a co-worker commented on how tan I am, and that made me pretty happy. These lunchtime workouts are the best because they break up my day, allow me to get 2 workouts in without having to get up before my normal 6:00 wake-up, and I get some sweet Texas sun. They also happen to be super high quality, an even better perk than the sun. Perhaps in the future I should just stick to the pool though...