Mile repeats on tracks (tough, but could have been tougher): 3x1 mile

What a huge drop in attendance at the tracks today! I saw barely 25 runners. Probably something to do with the really long run last Saturday or the Labor day weekend. Anyhow, they were supposed to be 5x1 mile repeats but it turned out that we were going to do "only" 4x1 repeats. Coach Anthony was in charge for Groups 1 and 2, and he did an awesome job as usual of reminding people to stay focused and stick to their planned lap times. Anthony, again, you are awesome!

I managed a 7:14, 7:10 and a 7:08 in the first three miles. Yes, I managed to improve with every mile repeat. But the third mile was really tough and I was going at only a 7:20 pace after two laps. While doing the last lap, I was seriously thinking of quitting and not doing another mile... My problem with mile repeats seems to be that they are psychologically much tougher than, say the 400m repeats, where at the beginning of the next repeat I can con my mind to just cooperate for a little bit more time. The mile repeats really need you to stay focused and believe in your abilities. And the ability to believe in your abilities gets seriously stressed in the last lap of the previous repeat, if you know what I mean.

Well, just as Anthony announced that it was time to do the last mile repeat, God, the savior, came in the incarnation of the track official who semi-yelled at us to get out of the tracks as they had closed. We had no choice. It was almost a pleasant mental shock for most of us as we had somehow gotten ready to do the fourth mile (I had successfully suppressed expressing to Anthony my urgent desire after the end of the third mile to quit and to not do the fourth mile. The 3 minute rest interval had certainly helped). The unexpected gift made so many of us give our biggest smiles of the day :-) Mala was spotted laughing. I made it a point to personally thank the unnamed official. Uma made a half-attempt at getting the remaining miles done on the wood chips but her suggestion was met with smiles of a different variety by the runners and coaches.

And as we were walking back from the stadium (where the mile repeats were held for the first time I believe this year, as our usual tracks were occupied by another group), some of us were musing aloud that it was a bummer and we feel cheated of our workout... Yeah sure!