Workout Wednesday

Yesterday Team Tortoise went out of its comfort zone.

Every Wednesday, our local running store, FitRight Active, has something called "Workout Wednesday." It is a free running workout for people of all abilities. Normally, the workout is some speed work on the track. I've been thinking about going for a long time, but I have always been too intimidated. I've seen some of the people who go to Workout Wednesday at races, and they are FAST. I mean, very very very very fast.

Macie, our fearless leader, decided that we should go, so we all did. We were all super nervous, but everyone there was nice and seemed happy to have us there.

The coach told us the workout:
run 2.5 laps at our 5k pace then rest for 2 minutes. 6 times.
Oh, and we ran a mile as a "warm-up". (I put "warm-up" in quotes because, for me, a mile isn't a warm-up. A mile is WORK!)

I was scared. Two and a half laps is a long way, and I knew that by the 6th one, I was going to be dying.

Thankfully, we all ended up finishing. Alec, Kelsey, and I did each interval at about a 10:15 pace. The last one we sped up a bit. Brooke stayed with us for the warm-up and for the first 3 intervals. Then she waited and ran with Macie. Macie kept saying she felt like she ran 10 miles, but then she found that her pace was a lot faster than she normally runs.

After we finished 4 intervals, most of the people there (there were only about 6 others there) had stopped. I was really discouraged because I though everyone was already done, but they informed me that they all stopped at 4 because it was too hard. But Team Tortoise finished all 6!

My only regret is that I didn't do the intervals faster. I was tired at the time, but now I feel like I could have gone a bit quicker. My fastest 5k was done at about a 9:30 pace, so I feel like I should have kept a 9:45 pace for the intervals. I was just so nervous about doing 2.5 laps at a time. My husband would say "Ya, played ya'self" ;)

Overall, it was a fun experience, and it broke the monotony of running alone all week. Hopefully, we will get to go again soon, and I will stop being scared and run faster.