Feel It In The Air

It’s weird, even though there isn’t really anything to do up here in Flagstaff, time has flown by! There has been some movie watching, pool playing, mini-golf and a lot of FIFA and NHL on the PS3 as Ellerton and I conduct our own Stanley Cup playoffs. I’ve actually felt kind of busy!

A few of us went to a local restaurant/bar for a couple of the hockey games last week since the playoffs aren’t on basic cable here in the good ole US of A. We met up with some of the Sun Elite and McMillan Elite girls for that. It was nice to socialize with people outside the group again. Don’t get me wrong, we have a great group, but it seemed like there wasn’t anyone else that really existed for a while.

It’s been a little while since my last update, so I’ll just give a review of my workouts for the past week or so…

Saturday, May 7:

200, 1000, 300 w/ 1 min rec., 20 min break, 500, 800, 200 w/ 2 min and 1 min rec.

This workout was brutal, especially at just over 4,000ft in Sedona with some nasty wind.  The 1000 was the farthest I’ve gone at race pace in a long time! I ran 29, 2:29.0, and died to a 48 in the 3. The next set was 73, 2:07, 27.5. I died in the 8 as well!

Tuesday, May 10:

2x (4x400 w/ 90 sec rec.) 7 minutes between sets @7000ft

We started off conservative, worked our way down and then started the 2^nd set where we finished the first with plans of working down again.

63, 63, 60, 60 – 60, 60, 64, 64

Unfortunately, I worked my way back up. I was dead! The altitude was killing me by about 200m into those last few intervals. I wasn’t too happy with the workout and it definitely messed with my confidence in terms of where I’m at with my fitness.

Thursday, May 12:

2 x 1 mile w/ 5 min recovery. Steady state the corners and stride the straights.

We headed down to Camp Verde (a little over 3000ft), which is a pretty small town that I’d never want to live in. The track was cinder and flooded in most of lane one. I got thrown in with the 800 group for the workout, so it was a nice boost of confidence doing mile repeats with them!

4:42, 4:47

It felt really comfortable and smooth, so it was a nice change from the last couple workouts where I was having visits from the bear.

Saturday, May 14:

600, 500, 400 w/ 2 min rec., 12 min break, 8x200 w/ 30 sec rec. @4000ft in Sedona

This was supposed to be a rhythm workout @1500m pace, but people got a bit excited in the first set.

1:26.7, 74.4, 57.5 – 30, 30, 30, 30, 29, 29, 29, 27.5

The air is so dry in Sedona, but I was really happy with how the workout went, especially in flats. I guess I’m a little fitter than I thought after last week.

Sedona was amazing. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I would definitely recommend a small vacation there; the scenery is beautiful. Breakfast after the workout was also amazing; some French toast stuffed with whipped cream cheese and topped with a blueberry compote and maple syrup along with a side of home fries. Delicious. I’ve included a short video of the view from breakfast as well as a few other pictures of Sedona and the track in Flagstaff: (click for larger images)

-  Linc

p.s. We had a full on snow flurry here on Tuesday. In Arizona. In May. Great.