Playing Track & Field

Time: ~50:48
Distance: ~6.09 miles

W/u: 19:45 for 2.58 miles
W/o?: 100m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m at ??? pace w/ 90 sec. rest
C/d: 17:41 for 2.11 miles

All of my readers know that I love track and field. I practically grew up on the track after taking up the sport when I was nine. I feel comfortable and relaxed spending hours at a track meet or just hanging out with friends around the oval. There is something special about the feel of the rubber, the lane lines and scattered hurdles that are common place. The one thing I don't like about the sport is that you can't "play" it.

It's fun to casually shoot hoops with friends or by yourself. It's fun to juggle a soccer ball or blast shots at an empty net. It's fun to break out the old baseball and mitt to toss the ball around with a friend. How does one play track and field? It's not really possible. There is a cool little piece in Once a Runner that talks about track athletes making up fake names and setting up scenarios to make them legends during a mock high jump competition. It's still not the same.

Running with friends and in a large group at a leisurely pace isn't playing either. While that may be fun, it's not because the activity of shuffling the legs repeatedly is fun. Those runs are fun because of the stories and laughter brought by close ones.

The closest thing to playing track and field to me is doing drills, running strides and enjoying an incredibly light workout. This afternoon I got to my roots in the sport. Caitlin and I met up over at her place and we started to jog in the direction of JCSU. Both of us wanted to get in a few strides and support Jay and Aaron in one of their last hard workouts for Boston.

The track was buzzing with activity this evening as a youth track team has started working out. I believe the team participates in the same type of meets that I used to compete at when I first started with the sport. Their practice started with lots of drills focused on the basic bio-mechanics of running. I wish I were disciplined enough to keep a drills routine twice or thrice a week. It's never too late to re-start and that's what Caitlin and I did.

We did some "A-skips" and "B-skips." Added sideways movements. Then we did butt kicks and high knees. All of these drills brought back memories of long ago practices at Santa Rosa High School's dirt track. It was fun chatting about former teammates with Caitlin while loosening up the legs.

Eventually, we got around to running a few light strides on the grass. I wanted to open up the legs and lungs with some focused efforts. At some point I decided I wanted to run a mini-ladder on the track. I slipped into flats and walked to the 100m start. The whole goal of the workout was to check leg speed and execute proper running technique.

Splits:
15.01, (90), 30.13, (91), 45.98, (90), 61.65, (90), 46.19, (91), 29.60, (91), 13.78. Roughly 13:22 for 1.4 miles.

That was a fun workout. It was the closest I could come to playing track. I felt comfortable on the ladder and tried not to strain. There was nothing stressful about the effort and that's the whole purpose of playing. It might not been as fun as dunking on a nine foot hoop, but that's the nature of the sport. I'll take what I can get on great evenings like this.