It's Gonna Hurt

The track always hurts. But I love it nonetheless. I guess the corollary to 'you always hurt the ones you love' is, 'what you love always hurts you'. Or something like that.

There's a police car at the entrance to Buckeye High School. I had been about to pull in, but instead, I drive on. The cop is watching for speedsters but would have certainly asked why I was going in. It probably wouldn't have helped to explain that I was going to do my speeding around the track. Even though that may be okay, it's just that it seems weird at 5:00 AM.

Whilst driving on, I wonder what to do now. I'm heading toward the Lester Rail Trail trailhead, so I may as well run there. Maybe I can still do something of substance? I pull into the dark lot. I think about this upcoming run. It's dark, and I don't have a headlamp. And even though it will hurt, I really ought to do real speedwork at the track.

I pull out and drive toward Claggett Middle School track in Medina. Yes, it's surely going to hurt, but I love it and I need it. By the time I arrive there, I have barely enough time to complete a ten-mile run, including the usual 10 x 800 Yasso workout. I do need to get moving, however.

Or should I? It's gonna hurt to try to duplicate last week's performance. It certainly did then during and after that run. Today, it's even warmer and more humid. Hey, I know. Maybe I'll do something different. Like maybe 1-mile intervals or something else. Maybe that won't hurt so much.

Nope. It would still hurt, and I really should do the 800s again for a variety of reasons. I'll start with one of them. 3:48; slower than last week's 3:40 average, but not terribly awful. Maybe I'll try another. 3:40; hey, maybe I can do this. After another 3:40, I start getting them under 3:40. And by the time I'm finishing up, I'm doing okay with the tedium of it all. I wind up with an average of 3:39.

Now it's time for a cooldown. Oooh boy. It does hurt. I guess I was right.