Time to Read: ~3 minThe workout
The 2nd week I took time to READ my email from Adam about our evening workout. This evening we'd be doing a ladder workout:
- 200 at R pace followed by 200 rest
- 400 at R pace followed by 400 rest
- 600 at I pace followed by 400 rest
- 800 at I pace followed by 400 rest
- 600 at I pace followed by 400 rest
- 400 at R pace followed by 400 rest
- 200 at R pace followed by 200 rest
I got the paces for the total distance each time and wrote them on my hand and then borrowed a watch from Xander to wear on my right arm. The Apple watch doesn't work well for intervals. It was weird to wear a watch on my right hand, and I couldn't figure out the split function on it, so I had trouble with pacing on the multi-lap ladders.
Excuse me Adam
We were standing as a group after finishing our warm-ups and Adam verbally gave us our workout. He misspoke, telling us we had a 200 rest after the longer intervals. I looked down at my hand where I had written enough short hand to know the rest distance and then tried to decide if I had made an error when writing from the email. Adam's wife, Tonya noticed my confusion just as I said aloud that I thought we had a 400 recovery each time after the 200. Our little group talked about it and then Tonya got Adam's attention. We settled on the 400 recovery and Adam said we could all thank me for reading my email. I felt like, "oh my goodness I hope that is what it actually said!" Caroline also said she remembered reading this and so did a few others so I felt pretty good that this was correct.
Warming up
Scott and I arrived at 6:40 so we had time to warm-up almost alone for 10 minutes before stretches. After this, we did our group stretching and then the entire group did the 10 minute warm-up. I forgot about that piece and when everyone started running I asked them what they were doing. Tonya replied, "we're doing our 10 minute warm-up." Oh yeah, that's right! I joined in. My friend Elizabeth was at Mithacal Milers for the first time, so it was fun to tell her about what to expect as we ran for the 10 minutes. She shared that she was nervous about the speed and I told her that I was sure she'd love it while sharing that I'm always nervous about it.
More about nerves
About a month ago I listened to a Tim Ferriss podcast titled, Adam Grant - The man who does everything. He shared his early struggles with lecturing for students. He was anxious. So anxious that virtually all of his evaluations mentioned that he was the most anxious professor they'd ever seen. However instead of staying this way he gave himself a dose of immersion therapy and started guest lecturing everywhere he could as a guest lecturer. He became singularly focused on exposing himself to the opportunity for growth. He shared that our bodies can handle only so much anxiety and eventually we will adjust. Somehow during this exposure to constant lecturing he became comfortable. He still gets little butterflies but he no longer experiences full blown anxiety.
Mithacal milers is that way for me. When we first started this two years ago I would read the workout emails and want to throw up. I was so afraid. I did the workouts, but with active fear for the entire warm-up until at least the mid point of the workout. Last night as I was verbalizing how I felt about these workouts to Elizabeth I realized that my body and mind have adjusted. The fear is abating. The nerves are still there but they are calmer. Reading the email is less daunting. I have come to enjoy the pattern of each evening; run and chat comfortably with friends during the warm-up, work hard during the reps and then enjoy each recovery chance to chat and connect with fellow runners. Adam is right that the body can only handle so much anxiety and it eventually adjusts.
Final mileage and thoughts
I ended up with 5.6 miles. My training plan called for 6 of speed (I know Mithacal Milers will average me from 5-7 so this was perfect). Scott and I came home to a delicious dinner of homemade pizza and salad. The kids were sweet. Elizabeth made dinner for all of us and they both waited until 8:40 to eat!! The only downside of this plan was that I literally ate dinner and went to bed 20 minutes later. It was hard to fall asleep.
Strava tracks
I think it is so cool that I can set my watch to indoor running and capture the workout.