Tuesday, October 6, 2009

October 3, 1979 (Wednesday)

From running log:
Cross country practice. 1 mile warmup, 4.5 mile workout, 1 mile cooldown (6.5 miles total) mixed road LSD with grass field Indian-style run. Plus 10 hill repeats. We need to psyche up for tomorrow. We need good team effort. My back is still healing, it hardly hurts at all anymore. My legs are a little tight and sore. I want to break 16 minutes in tomorrow's race, or at least run damn hard.

30 years later:
An Indian-style run is a type of workout in which several teammates run together single-file. One-at-a-time, the runner who is last in line sprints to the front of the line. After that runner has arrived at the front, the runner who has taken over last place does the same. And so on and so forth in a continuous rotation. It's a good way to get in some short, high-intensity work during an otherwise easy run.

We were scheduled to race the teams from Reedsburg and Mauston on the latter's home cross country course the next day. For me, it would be another chance to face my rivals Matt Klecker and Jim Boehm. For the team, this race should have been a mere tune-up; we had more talent and a deeper pool of fast runners than those two opponents.

Running sub-5:20 pace per mile on a fairly flat cross country course was my goal for the race. I'd never run that fast before, but I knew I was improving and I wanted to take my best shot.

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