Back on track? Back to the good discipline at least!

8 am on Sunday morning, it felt surreal to be at the track. Not only because of the early hour on a long weekend in memory of Dr Martin Luther King, but because of the fog. When finding the right words to describe the scene is way harder than getting the phone out to snap a picture...

The fog was so thick that it might have tricked smoke detectors: a general alarm got triggered and sounded for a few of our initial laps.

Beyond the spectacular lightning, the day was also out of the ordinary because it had been years since I ran with Bob for a workout. We used to meet at least once a week for years, before and after the ILOG acquisition in 2008. At 5:45 am, at the Mountain View High School track, with Jeremy. Then occasionally as our work schedules and my travels got in the way. Then I stopped doing hard track workouts with my fissured tendon injury at the end of 2018. Actually, since I have a note in my running log, our last workout together was September 27, 2018. More than 6 years, and another serious injury with the broken meniscus, time flies...

I pinged Bob on Friday evening in hope he'd be able to pace me on a tempo run. I wanted to see how far I could hold a 7 min/mile pace. 10 miles? 15? Bob ran 2 marathons last year -- his 12th Boston, and Santa Rosa -- and was interested in running 10 miles.

I set the pace on the first 4 laps, then we alternated at every mile. Bob stopped a handful of times for either a pit stop, or to catch his breath. He is super consistent and was clocking 1:40 laps +/- 1 second. Slightly below my 7 min/mile goal so I did stop with him at the end of 10 miles: 1:07:42 for 40.25 laps in lane 1, I was pleased by how smooth this felt. Having a pacer makes it so much easier, thank you, Bob! I added 5.5 miles to make 25K.

This Monday, I also got back to another tradition, my run along the railway track, for another 25K. That was another habit I had in my good years, running a race distance in 2 or 3 segments, 1 or 2 weekends before a race.

Very pleased to feel my glutes responding and engaging into the effort. And even more so that they aren't too sore afterwards. Great sign of rebuilding. A few laps at a time. While I would concede the work at the gym, on the bike or the rower helped for sure, I still believe nothing can replace actual running to strengthen and condition your legs appropriately. But, fair and granted, with the knee still whispering, I'm forced to lighten the load and leverage the benefits of cross-training.

One more weekend to fine tune and test my endurance before Jed Smith. Coros still gives me a 3:11 marathon prediction. I believe I'm past that. At least I'm working hard to prove it wrong! And, to anyone wanting to get faster and stronger, I can't recommend enough the discipline of the track!