Well, That's a First!

As you may remember if you've wandered into the Long Track Life recently, I'm doing the same workouts this year that I did in 2007, which was the first full year that TieGuy was my coach.  Every year since then we've upped the volume of work, which was fine for the first few years.  This spring, though, due to a combination of circumstances (that is, the combination of me being fat, out of shape, and low on mental toughness), I was quite certain that I would be unable to complete the same workouts that I had scheduled for last year.  Note that I say "had scheduled," not "had completed,"--yeah, I couldn't do them last year either.  So clearly age or wimpiness or body fat are catching up with me, and I need to take it back a notch if I'm going to successfully complete workouts and not become mired in that dilemma common to those who coach themselves:  trying to figure out how much/whether/how to cut back when it's clear you can't do what you had planned.

So anyway, long story short (really, do I ever do that? Let's be realistic here) I've been working my way through the 2007 workouts since April.  And they've gone fairly well.  I've only missed one dryland--when my chiropractor convinced me to skip the last dryland before oval skating started, to help my back heal.  I've missed one oval workout--we've had a LOT of rainy days here.  I've been skimping on skipping the yoga, but at least I've been stretching and I do plan to start the yoga when school gets out and I have more time and energy.  But in general, I've been getting out there and doing the workouts as written and I'm not quitting early and I'm dealing with the workload fine, mentally and physically.

But I am slow.

Most evenings, when I get back from skating and settle onto the couch with a protein shake and the Twins baseball game, I grab my 2007 Data Binder and do a quick comparison of the day's workout, version 2007 and 2013 (yes, I'm a geek. So?)  And thus far the comparison has been a bit discouraging.  Endurance laps that were 44-48 seconds in 2007 are now 48-52 seconds; tempos that used to be 38's to 40's are now 45's and 46's.  Slow.

But last night was different.  Last night I had a fairly short interval workout.  I wasn't expecting it to go well; apparently my body decided that, if I was going to have a re-do of 2007, I should re-do all of 2007, and since I got a cold in mid-May of 2007 my immune system decided that I needed a cold in mid-May of 2013 as well.  So I was just hoping to get through the workout without bailing (or getting rained on.)

But the workout went surprisingly well.  I felt good, and my 400 meter lap times were reasonable at 42-44 seconds.  Not stellar, but reasonable.  So I was delighted to find, when I got home and checked the 2007 version of the workout, that I was faster in 2013 than I was in 2007. 

Trust me, that NEVER happens.

True, my notes on the 2007 version say "Bad.  400's 45-47.  Told to quit after 3 sets."  So clearly it was a bad workout if Coach TieGuy pulled the plug early--he's not known for his mercy.  But still.

I was faster this year than I was in 2007.