Sliding Down the Pyramid (on My Ass)

Tonight at Nike Speed we ran a pyramid workout, which kicked me on my ass. And I like pyramids. Last season, we ran them by increasing then decreasing our laps around the track. But this weather has turned the track into an “ice skating rink” (Coach Kate’s words), so we run pyramids with speed intervals based on time rather than distance. 

We ran a mile and a half warm-up over to the West Side highway, then ran surges of 1, 2, 3, and 4 minutes with 2 minutes recoveries before sliding back down through 3, 2 and 1 minute surges. 

I think I lost the group during the recovery between the 3 and 4-minute intervals–I needed to jog slower than the rest of them to get my heart rate down, and fell behind. My surges with the group at just over 7-minute mile pace, but the ones I ran on my own were around 7:40’s. Bummer. I used Little G to time myself and most definitely did complete the workout–just 40 seconds slower than everyone else. All told, we ran about 7 miles tonight. Back home, I’m feeling a little beat up, to tell the truth. 

A semi-expected perk of tonight’s workout: I met a fellow running blogger, Ansky from Run Ansky Run. He had tipped me off he would be at the workout, and I told him to just look for the pigtails. (It worked.) He is tall and skinny guy with a friendly face, who runs in his glasses; my heart went out to him when he blogged a few months ago about feeling the tug between his conflicting desires to run and to be present for his wife and daughter. (He’s since sorted it out.)One of the first things Ansky asked me tonight was if I’d done laundry since my last blog post. (I haven’t. I just went shopping at Vicky’s Sunday afternoon.) And to give props where props are due: Ansky killed tonight’s workout (we were in the same pace group although clearly he belonged there while I was just an arrogant interloper). Looking forward to seeing him at future Nike Speed workouts!