1st track workout: Silicon Valley Tri Club

At last I was able to get a Tuesday free of work and family obligations to be able to take part in one of the regular Tuesday night track workouts put on by Coach Sherry for the Silicon Valley Triathlon Club (SVTC).

Since the workout is way down at De Anza College and begins at 6:30pm (you're supposed to warm up on your own beforehand), it's not the most convenient workout session to attend for me as I have to drive 20 miles in rush hour traffic to get there.

Despite all that, I made it tonight and given how much fun it was, I'll be sure to make it back again.

The workout itself was posted ahead of time to the SVTC mailing list (as they all are). I was a little nervous to attend because this was my first ever group track workout. Would I be fast enough? Would I stand out in my basic ignorance of all the lingo? (ABCs and IT bands and VDOTs, oh my).

I needn't have worried. I've got a strong enough base fitness that I was able to keep up fine and even enjoyed myself more than I thought I was going to. There were about 30 of us in all, and we split into two groups: the fast folks (not me) and the rest (including me).

Our workout (all running counter-clockwise around the track):

1 x 1600 @ T pace
Rest interval is core circuit #1
1 x 1200 @ T pace
Rest interval is core circuit #2
1 x 800 @ T pace
Rest interval is core circuit #3
1 x 400 @ T pace
Rest interval is core circuit #4
1 x 200 @ T pace
Rest interval is core circuit #5

Slow recovery x 800 (clockwise, to unwind) and stretch to end.

For me, T pace = 7:40 per mile and the core circuits were all variations on a set of situps/crunches, a set of lunges/squats and a set of planks/pushups.

The hour went by really quickly, and unlike when I run around the neighborhood on my own, I got a chance to work on speed AND get a core workout, too.

Even if I can't make the trip down to De Anza College on future Tuesdays, I'll be running the workouts down the street at Sequoia High School. I have a feeling this is how I'm going to bump up my speed on race days.