Day 3: SufferFestukah: We're Still Triathletes

Doing Revolver - at the crack of dawn.

Webb: And on the third day, they did two workouts. As crazy as doing eight days of TheSufferfest.com workouts is, we have to be even crazier and make sure we do not totally ignore swimming and running. We wanted to run with our Thursday night track friends at SEAC. I have missed the last few because of work and was damn sure I was not going to miss out on a December track workout when it is a blistering 50F outside.

THE MORNING WORKOUT: REVOLVER
1-minute intervals at maximum effort with a scant 1-minute recovery between each. All out. Everything you got. 100%. 15 times. Check it out for yourself if you don't believe us.

Webb: Why is Revolver in  all caps? We had a bit of disagreement between us whether Downward Spiral or Revolver was harder. I was in the DS camp. Not anymore. The argument is concluded.

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Elle: As per usual, Revolver chewed me up, and spit me out.

Webb: Getting up at 5:45am was near impossible this morning. That had nothing to do with Revolver. I actually like doing morning workouts - if I know I can go back to sleep afterwards. I had to do it if I was going to fit in SEAC running club.

Elle: This morning's visit to Sufferlandria almost didn't happen. Luckily Maxwell (the orange cat) woke me at around 5:50am for breakfast, that's when I realized the alarm had gone off, and Webb had shut it off, probably half asleep. So I turned the lights on and told him to get his butt out of bed; it was time to suffer.

Webb: What can I say? It was brutal. Serious nausea at #13 and I nearly cracked at #15 trying to keep up with the pro women. Here is the thing though. You won't get faster doing intervals 1-3. You get faster doing intervals 13-15. So if you want to get faster, you have to hang in there.

Post-running w/ Laura @ SEAC

THE EVENING WORKOUT  - Track Speed Work with @SEACBOSTON
warm-up : 1.5 miles
Main:  400m  ON
                       4 x 100m OFF/100m ON
                       200m OFF/200m ON
Drills: Lunges, back pedaling, lower-leg drive, etc.
Shake Out: 800m of Jog the Turns-Stride the Straights
cool-down: 1.5 miles

Webb: I missed the SEAC crew. I think @Dan_SEAC, our speed leader, must have missed me too because he knows how much I love workouts that start with 400m.

Elle: I didn't know if I was going to have any energy tonight, but once I got on the track, it felt good to bust it out.


Webb:  It is my belief that if you want to get faster you need to run fast. That is why I do my efforts at closer to my mile pace rather than say a 5k pace.  I also tend to recover at a slower pace than others because I also believe the harder the effort the easier the recovery. (There are some workouts that intentionally deprive you of a complete recovery and they have their purposes. At some point, we'll do one such cycling workout I like to call Surge n' Purge.)

Elle: In the summer, when it's light out, the track is full of activity, with baseball games and soccer games, all going on at once, spectators in the stands, people on the basketball courts. But in the winter, the lights are out, no one is there except us, and there is a silence at the track that is kind of meditative.

Webb: The last time we did Revolver in the morning and SEAC speed at night, Elle woke up with her knee all messed up. For that reason, I cautioned her as we stepped on the track.

           me:  Ok, you're gonna want to take it easy tonight. Don't go too hard.

          Elle (with no trace of mockery): Don't worry. I plan to run with you.

And there you have it.

Elle: In traditional SEAC running club fashion, post-run involved lots of stretching and socializing, plus some eating of homemade turkey chili (thanks Emily @ems1030) and apple cake (thanks Natasha), and the drinking of beer. Lots of beer. Was that wise? Perhaps not. Was it fun? Most definitely.