So Many Options

Yesterday, I received an email from Missouri Running Co. about their upcoming track sessions. They are offering organized track workouts at University City High School every Monday evening for ten weeks. The sessions are free and they offer a couple of different options for the workouts depending on your fitness level.

That email reminded me that the St. Louis Track Club's Track Series should be coming up soon too. I hopped on their website and they have five track races coming up on Tuesday nights.

So now I have several options to weigh.

Missouri Running Co. track sessions:
http://www.morunco.com/
I like the idea of having people to run some speedwork with. Having other people to help with pacing and motivation during intervals would be awesome. Plus, I was hoping to focus on speedwork after Hospital Hill and this would be a great way to kickstart that transition. And it's free! But U City High is a bit of a drive and I could do my own workouts two miles from home. And it would mean moving our Monday nights at the Rec Center to another night (or missing the weekly swim with Liz).

St. Louis Track Club Track Series:
http://stlouistrackclub.com/
This is a fun series of races. It's the only time I get to race distances this short and on the track. And a series is always fun because of the added competition involved with tracking points across several races. But the Series is at Clayton High School which is basically as far away as U City High. And the Series is $45 which isn't as nice as free.

Other considerations:
Next Wednesday is my final day of teaching classes for the semester. That means I'll only be working late on Thursdays for the rest of the summer. I'm finally getting another night free and I'm already considering using one or two nights for running and races. And, depending on which event I run, we'll have to either move our gym night or our weekly dinner with friends.

I doubt anyone reading all of this really cares about all of the things that go into my decision-making process. It just helps me to get it all in writing to organize my thoughts.

As for today's training, I ran The Never Ending Hill Of Doom again today. I ran the Hill twice just like last week. I didn't feel as bad on the Hill itself as I did last week but the run as a whole felt pretty slow. I certainly wasn't running for speed and I think I was running/jogging slower because I knew the Hill was coming up. On the way home, a good-sized hill was hardly noticeable though so the Hill must be doing its job.

If I keep this up, I won't fear the hills in K.C.

Thursday
Goal For The Day: Hill Repeats.
Distance: 4.01 Miles.
Time: 33:53. 8:27 Avg. (7:59, 7:44, 9:24, 8:39, 0:05*).
Route: 2 x Never Ending Hill Of Doom
Conditions: 68 degrees. 7:23AM.
Run Details On Garmin

Notes: Today felt slow and sure enough, when I checked the Garmin page, last week's run was in 31:31 and today was 33:53. Same course, two-and-a-half minutes slower. They can't all be fast days.

Daily Miles: 4.01 Miles.
2012 Totals:
  Run - 291.47 Miles.
  Bike - 0.00 Miles.
  Swim - 7,450 meters.