Tuesday track

When I became a member of the Eryri Harriers , I saw that there are lots of training possibilities. There is the Thursday Night Hill sessions I regularly attend, and the Monday training and Wednesday training I each did once. The Monday training wasn't really fit for me, but the Wednesday training was. I just did not want to have another evening commitment after my Tuesday Welsh class and Thursday runs. There was also track training on Tuesday, but obviously, that clashed with Welsh class so was out of the question.

Welsh class has now finished. And I had bailed out of the Tuesday night fell race series anyway. So I figured I could do Track Tuesday! And it would help that I knew that my colleague Chris would be there too. So in the office I changed into my running kit, and biked to the track. There I figured I could start doing some laps as a warmup. In the blazing sun. 

When it got to 6 o'clock I asked some loitering people if they were also there for Track Tuesday, and they were. So I was at the right place. And then I saw Chris appear. I joined him for another lap of warmup. And at the end of that, he introduced me to the instructor.

Picture from The Track Tuesday Facebook page

Soon we started. We first did some short drills, where we moved a few tens of meters in a particular way; doing walking lunges, or skipping with knees high; that sort of thing. And then we got to the real training. It had been announced on the app what the drill would be: 2×800 m with a two minute break, then 4×400 meters with a one minute break, and then 8×200 meters with a 30 second break. We were expected to do that in single file. People started to line up, and Chris pushed me in somewhere and said "I think you should be about here”. And we set off! 

I was a bit uncertain about it all. We had been warned against racing each other. No looming at someone’s shoulder as it might stress them out. And I had people behind me! Now I had to go fast enough for them to not get frustrated. When I had done the 800 m I saw there had only been one person behind me. Not a whole train! Phew. And when I wanted to get further towards the back nobody would let me. It turned out Chris had placed me perfectly! 

Picture from The Track Tuesday Facebook page

Then we did the rest and I relaxed. But also made some effort! That was the whole point, after all. I ended up in a fairly fixed position. It was good! I enjoyed it. 

When we had done the last 200 m the instructor told us to take off our socks and shoes, and line up, flat on our bellies on the grass in the centre of the track. He had a last trick up his sleeve: when he blew his whistle, we had to jump up and run as fast as we could to the other side of the cone-demarcated field. We did that ten times. Then we were done! 

It had been good! I had run some 8km in total, but quite differently from how I normally run that distance. I chatted a bit with some fellow runners and then headed home. 

I intend to be back next week! This is useful and fun, and logistically easy, as the track is only half a mile from my commute. So this might be a regular occurrence from now on…