Flying!

I just had a great run session, with Oscar and Chris, in what has become a regular Thursday night kilometre rep effort. This is down on the Embarcadero 

which is a busy place and not the sort of place I'd normally choose to run. It's flat, which is good, but it's mostly concrete so it's not a good surface for your joints. I should get away with once a week though. My other routes round here can be on more varied terrain, so I'm mixing it up.

Oscar is fiercely competitive, and a "crit racer". For those of you familiar with bike racing this will tell you everything you need to know. Criterium racing is city centre bike racing, where the cyclists complete 30 or so quite short laps round a tight circuit populated by sharp corners, street furniture and variable terrain often including cobbles and stuff. The racers ask for, and give, no quarter. Elbows are as well developed as cycling legs, and the whole thing usually ends up in a balls-out sprint for the line. So you don't need that much endurance, it's mostly about the ability to sprint out of corners and duke it out at the end. That's Oscar. He's built like a 50s miner. Chris is young fit and fast, but (I'm happy to report) inexperienced. At the moment, I'm able to outwit Chris or use my pacing experience. I don't expect that to last too long. Oscar is a few pounds overweight right now, so I can hold him off as well. It's going to be a different story when we go out on the bikes.

Tonight's session was, as normal, hot, sunny, and busy. We ran east along the Embarcadero towards the AT&T stadium, which is where the San Francisco giants baseball team play. 1 K take you to just alongside a pub where we stand puffing and blowing while being watched by relaxed drinkers no doubt all thinking were crazy. Then it's sync Garmin / Timex / Samsung, 3-2-1 and off. Next stop is the stadium: puff, blow, sync, 3-2-1 back to the pub, repeat back to Ferry Building. Repeat the whole thing, sprint finish and away. This week, the sprint finish was very interesting. I was flying all night, light on my feet and feeling good. My garmin packed in, but I was on 4:05 pace or better and feeling like I had more to offer. Oscar was suffering - partly from a couple of recent heavy bike sessions, partly from the extra pounds he's carrying, and partly from a belly full of last night's beer. But his competitive drive was keeping him in touch, about 15 metres down on Chris. Chris was heavy-legged as well (I doubt there's anything to do with bad living, he's far too clean for that. I think he's just getting his fitness back into focus. Anyway, I can still keep him at bay. The last k though, is a different story. Once again, Chris tried to take me down but I could hear his feet slapping down on the concrete so I could monitor him even though I couldn't see him. In any case, I knew he be trying. So I cruised as easily as I could, waited until I figured he would be about to give it a go, and just put in a small injection of pace. There was no way he was coming past, not with me feeling this good. I was reasonably sure I'd seen him off, but stepped it up once more with 150 to go, then all out for the last 40-50. I looked back as soon as I crossed the "finish line" and Chris was done. As soon as he'd realised he wasn't going to get past me he slowed. Oscar didn't! Oscar was practically on tip toes trying to sneak past, and Chris didn't see him till it was too late.

Age 2; youth nil. A good evening indeed!