The Inaugural "Speed Saturday"

Well, where do we start? Oh yeah: with food. Pharmie brought home 3 pizzas last night:

So I was WELL FUELED for intervals today!

This morning, it was 30 degrees with 12-20 mph winds. Sweet. It was going to be the coldest run since last winter. Yum. So I started the day with a bowl of oatmeal. Then I packed a backpack with a boombox, a bottle of water, my camera, and some extra clothes.

Borsch showed up, and we ran down to the St. Thomas track.

We hung out for a bit and tried to stay warm in that chilly breeze. After a minute, Ryan showed up. Borsch and I introduced ourselves, and he said he saw Pharmie finish Steelhead (he finished Steelhead too), and he saw me out there cheering. Apparently, this outfit is easily remembered:

Damn, that photo STILL turns me on...

Pharmie showed up a minute later (she was on a longer run, and she met us there). After a few more minutes, Laura and Greg showed up. Finally, Jen arrived, and we had our crew!

We all started our own workouts. Borsch was doing some 600s and 200s, and Laura and Greg went along with him. Here’s Laura running by:

And here’s Greg, dancing to the music as he runs past the blaring boombox we brought:

Greg doesn’t run THAT weird, he’s just trying to “jive”
(or... umm... something...)

Ryan, Jen, and Pharmie were just out to put in some miles on the track. Ryan warmed up and did 10-15 minutes at 5K pace (sorry Ryan, I didn’t get a photo of you!). Jen and Pharmie just ran laps. Look at how synchronized they are:

I ended up running this:
800 M slightly faster than 5K pace
100 M jog for 40 seconds
200 M nearly “all out”
100 M jog for 40 seconds
Repeat for 5 intervals

Know what? Those 200s in there SUCKED - mostly because I wasn’t giving myself much rest (40 seconds of jogging). I don’t know my exact times because my watch battery died half way into the run. But it started back up, and I kept track in my head and wrote them all down afterwards. From what I figure, I ran a 2:48 average for the 800s, and a 0:39 average for the 200s.

When I finished the last 200, I collapsed in the in-field, and I snapped this photo:

Everyone wrapped up their workout and started taking off. Borsch and I weren’t done. We decided to run stairs on the bleachers:

336 stairs up, 336 stairs down, for a total of 672 stairs.

It was nice to see all of you out there today! You all made intervals fun! Let's do this again!

We headed for home, quick changed clothes, and headed out to celebrate Steph’s Birthday!! (That’s Pharmie’s sister and Borsch’s girlfriend.) We went to Longfellow Grill, and I had a HUGE breakfast burrito:

And Pharmie had the strawberry french toast:

If your interested in joining us for future workouts, let me know! Borsch and I hope to do these workouts 2 or 3 times a month for the duration of the winter. And maybe next time, I can get a photo or Borsch, too. Oops. This is the best I got (sorry Borsch!):

And one last plea: please go here and cast your vote for Steve in a Speedo! There’s only a day and a half left! I'll be back in a day or 2 to write about the workout that I hope to do in the next hour - it's gonna be sweet!