Track Workout.

After getting my pedals installed and dropping $80 on a pair of sport road shoes ( man my creditors will love my ass) after I found out specialized screwed up shipping on my tri shoes ( which will arrive Monday and I decided I might as well have a pair for training and a pair for racing). Ed at the Biker's edge fit me to the bike and let me tell you I only trust him and Al to fit me, because seriously after one adjustment he had me in a nearly perfect position. After about 20 min. the Bitch Stomper was ready for action, unfortunately mother nature let out a deluge of water and I decided not to play everyone's favorite game "Let's wreck a $1600 tri-bike". Knowing I was cutting it close to get to the Waterbury Y. After taking a wrong turn and finding myself following route 6 through Terryville, I decided to screw my plans fo a swim workout and drove the 6 miles to Watertown high School and got decided to get in some run mileage. When i arrived at the track and XC hopeful was running around on the inside lane listening to his i-pod, while his girlfriend was power walking in her black yoga pants in lane 6. I decided since I really haven't done any speed work all season ( I've just been doing base and hills since Jan. with about a race a month and a tri just about every week. June-Aug. ), I decided to do a treshold work out. I was going to do 4X1600m repeats on 60sec. rest. The voice of my track coach Art Rodriguez rang in my head " When you do thresholds you should always feel like you could have gone faster." " Always do the first repeat slow and try to descend 5 sec. per repeat." I began my first repeat and cliped out 4 laps at a reasonable pace total time 8:00 not bad.

I walked in a circle timing my rest. At :50 I cleared the stop watch and did a 10 sec. countdown. 10, 9...5, 4,3, 2, 1 and started on the second repeat. The first lap was good, the second was looking good as the XC hopeful and his girlfriend left leaving me alone with the track...or so I thought...a skunk appeared by the the refreshment hut by the far turn on my second lap...ok I thought he's not on the track ...when I passed on the third lap Mr. Le Pew , was on the infield grass between the back strech and far turn. in the pole vault area, on my fourth lap he was sprinting toward the 50 yard line of the football field on the infield. My second lap was a model of consistency..another 8:00 mile. When I stopped he was still on the infield grass at about midfield. I did my countdown and started my third repeat. the first lap went well, I picked up on the second, the skunk started to move toward the near end of the back strech, I did my third lap strating to push a little harder, the skunk was approaching the turn. I kicked out my fourth lap and had to run wide as the skunk was now in the inside lane at the far end of the near turn. As I finshed my third repeat in 7:41 I decided to call it a night. at the rate the skunk was moving he'd be on the front straight at any minute and I would be covered in a substance most foul. So all in all 3 miles wasn't a bad track work out, and the fact that I didn't get covered in skunk spray kept the evening going well.