Arriving at the track, the car thermometer said that the temperature was 3.5 degrees, it had been 5-6 degrees most of the day, so I was a bit surprised to be told at reception that spikes were compulsory on the track due to ice. I assumed that it was a case of the Health & Safety bods being over cautious. However once on the track itself, it was really treacherous. The puddles from this morning's rain had indeed frozen & where there weren't puddles, there was a thin film of shiny frost.
We had a bit of a debate about the merits of trying to run quickly in the conditions, only three of us were present....Mark I, Rachael B & myself, with coach Pete. We decided to do a warm up around the perimeter track, then put spikes on & see what it was like for running on the track.
The consensus was that we would give it a go, but being very cautious on the corners........landing on the forefoot was fine, but when the heal came into contact with the surface it felt decidedly slippery. The session we were running was due to be mainly short fast reps: 8X400m (with reducing recoveries...2x1min, 2x50 secs, 2x40 secs, 1x30 secs), 4X300m (100m jog recoveries), then take a view on doing a couple of 800s after that.
I ran the first 400 in 82 seconds, with Rachael & Mark going a bit quicker than me. After that we seemed to get more confident with the conditions, I ran the remaining 400s in 78/79 seconds, which if anything is a bit quicker than I've recently managed. The 300s were marginally faster again in about 58 seconds.
Instead of 800s, Pete suggested that we do a slightly longer effort, with changes of pace....alternating the lead. We did 1200m in 4:18. After the 300s, this pace felt very comfortable, despite the uneven pace.
In total we did 5600m of efforts, which is less distance than we usually do, but it was quicker than average (especially considering the conditions).
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