After the Pickleball crew left last night I remembered that I hadn’t eaten anything of substance for the day, so I headed to Wawa. (For those of you not acquainted with Wawa, it’s like Sheets, or if a 7-ELeven had a fresh deli where they made hoagies (subs/grinders) to order with your choice of meats/cheeses/veggies/etc. Sandwich quality is far better than Subway in my opinion.) Apparently, two roast beef hoagies with pickled hot peppers and jalapeños can affect my digestive tract. This morning, I had issues; pre-run, post-warm-up, and post-run.
With my digestive system arguing with me, I wasn’t too optimistic about my chances of making my 2km goal time of 10:00. The first lap felt quick, but not easy, and it was; 1:50. I was worried I’d gone out too fast, and would quickly tire. Keeping an eye on the 100m and 200m splits gave me a boost of confidence as I could see that I was maintaining a 30sec 100m pace for first part of the second lap, and the 800m split was 3:50. The pace was a little bit of a push, but I was able to maintain focus, form, and breathing. I lost a second on the third lap to bring me to 5:51. The fourth lap I maintained my goal pace of 2:00 to bring me to 7:51. The fifth lap I made a conscious effort starting at the 200m mark to extend my stride, and managed to finish the 2k in 9:46! That means the breakdown was 1:50/2:00/2:01/2:00/1:55.
At this point here’s the progression:
- (7/29) 10:06
- (7/30) 10:02
- (7/31) 9:56
- (8/1) 10:02
- (8/2) (day off)
- (8/3) 10:03
- (8/4) 10:18
- (8/5) 11:02 –> 13:15 (2.4k)
- (8/6) 9:56
- (8/7) No run, played Pickleball
- (8/8) 9:46
I noticed that there was some sort of boys’ camp on the field and they were playing Ultimate; well, kind of. The two counselors said that the kids played twice a week, but that they weren’t very familiar with Ultimate. They had the basics: can’t run with the disc; try to catch it in the end zone; but beyond that, not much. I introduced myself, and they called the kids over. I explained the stall count, some basic foul rules, the Contest/No Contest system to them, and that you can’t double-team the person with the disc. They were 4th – 6th graders, so they will have many years of Ultimate in front of them to develop field sense, plays, etc. and get a deeper understanding of the game. It was nice to see that Ultimate is a regular part of a recreation program.
Travels with JB 