When I got to Kezar Stadium today, I was surprised to find the track overflowing with young kids in running uniforms. The first thing that came to my mind was “Oh, No ! Track got canceled today last minute, and since I didn’t check my email before getting here, I am screwed”.

So I scoured the stadium and felt relieved after locating Tom – wearing his now famous hat – still on top of the seats on the left side (from the entrance) of the Stadium. Yoshimi, Tom’s super cute and funny daughter was also there. I think Yoshimi has a better track attendance than a lot of the other trainees, but since she is sort of our training mascot and cheerleader, I guess it doesn’t count ? Or does it ? What do you think ?

Anyways, I reached our group and situated myself. Tom told me that there was some Varsity Competition going on down at the inner Track. The last 2 races were still on, so Tom improvised, and made us do our warm up laps on the outer track for 10 minutes (with the expectation that the Varsity peeps would be done by then) and then asked us to assemble again at the top. We did that and when we reassembled at the top once more, Tom had two of the Pacers come up and introduce themeselves. There was a lot of background noise from the varsity peeps down below. Moreover, both the Pacers were very soft-spoken, so I could not hear most of what they said. Sorry, otherwise I would’ve profiled you two here on the blog !

Workout Overview – Cruise Running

After the introductions, Tom dove into the details of today’s workout.

He said “Today, we’ll be doing Cruise Running. So you run at your Threshold Pace (T-Pace) for 4 sets of 800 meters. Since each lap around the inner track is 400 meters, each set of 800 meters will amount to 2 laps. After each set of 800 meters, rest for 60 to 90 seconds before starting the next set.

Next week, Day Light Savings will kick in. So we will also start running longer distances, outside the Stadium and in Golden Gate Park. So during today’s workout, do find a group that is about your same pace so that you can run with them in the Park from next week and avoid getting lost during the run.”

By now, the Varsity peeps had quickly cleared out from the inner Tracks, so the SF Marathon Trainees quickly descended onto the Tracks and took over !

Track Log – Cruise Running

After our workout briefing, I headed down to start my Cruise Laps. My usual running group peeps Steve , Luiz and Jay had all already taken off, so I pretty much did my laps alone (I know, sorry Tom !).

I timed each lap in each set using my Garmin GPS, and then entered them into my iPhone during the resting period inbetween sets. Tom saw me using the iPhone during my 2nd Set rest and Joked

No Texting while Running !

My lap times for the 4 sets came in as follows.

1. 1st Set Lap 1 = 1 min 50 secs Lap 2 = 2 min 14 secs
2. 2nd Set Lap 3 = 2 min 9 secs Lap 4 = 2 min 10 secs
3. 3rd Set Lap 5 = 2 min 1 secs Lap 6 = 2 min 3 secs
4. 4th Set Lap 7 = 1 min 57 secs Lap 8 = 2 min 4 secs

After I finished, I stretched for a few minutes, then went up to Tom, presented my lap times, and then asked him what it meant. One quick look at the stats, and Tom immediately said “1st Set is bad, rest all look good.”

I asked him why, and he said that the difference in times in between 2 laps should be more or less same. So in my 1st set, the difference between the 1st lap and 2nd lap came in at 24 seconds, which is nearly a 13 percent difference. This is not good. Whereas the other 3 laps had a difference of only 1 to 6 seconds between laps.

I thanked Tom for the feedback and made my way up to my gear.

Kensley is Running the Boston Marathon !

Up near where my gear was, I met Kensley, another Pacer and runner in our Training Group. Kensley was telling Paul how he had qualified to the Boston Marathon this year also. He seemed very excited about the Race and told me he was going to shoot for “Sub 3“. I didn’t know what that meant, but guessed it has something to do with finishing in under 3 hours.

I told Kensley how I had lived in Boston for 5 years, that too just a few blocks from Copley Square, the Official Finish line of the Boston Marathon. I would always go to the finish line on Marathon Monday afternoons and take lots of photos !

Kensley told me that he is going to have a timer / chip on him using which we can track his progress in real-time. So I am going to be doing just that on April 19th !

After chatting with Kensley, I drove home into the very cold winter night in my red scooter and took a really really hot shower for almost 15 minutes.

And of course, once again I slept like a baby (minus the diapers !)

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