Track Workout and Amaza-abs

Since we are staying in Burlington this week, I thought it was a great opportunity to try out the GMAA track workouts, held Thursday evenings at the UVM track. I ventured over, feeling a little anxious about meeting new people and jumping right into their track workout. But I was also excited to meet the coach, Kasie Enman, who is a local running celebrity and the women's winner of the 2012 Key Bank Vermont City Marathon.

When I arrived at the track, I discovered sadly that Kasie was not coming and we were on our own. Me and a bunch of runners I had never met. But, as it usually goes in running, I was soon warming up and chatting with another runner. Once warmed up, I decided the workout that Kasie had shared, perhaps through ESP with a fellow GMAA member, was not going to work for me (1000 repeats at 5K pace). I really wanted something quicker and faster to best prepare me for the Montpelier Mile next week. An 8 months pregnant woman whose belly looked only slightly bigger than my 2.5 years postpartum belly motioned me over. She's one of the coaches for OnTrack Health and Fitness, and they also do their track workouts there every Thursday evening. She graciously offered for me to join their 400 repeat workout (8 times, with 1.5 min rest between). I was relieved to find out she was coaching and timing, not actually running the 400 repeats herself. Because surely she and her super-fit unborn child would have kicked my butt, and that would just be a rough blow to my ego.

So me and three other runners started out on the first 400. I was happy to discover that one of the other women runners was about my speed, though a little faster, and I finished just behind her on the first one. But, dang, it was so stinking humid out and I wasn't sure I could do 7 more of these. With 1.5 minutes of rest in between, I went to drink some water. Then the woman who I had just run with took off her shirt. "You go, girl", I thought, as I'm always impressed with women who have the confidence to do that. Just then I was blinded by the glow of her amazing abs! Jesus, that's just unfair. Abs really can look like that without photoshop, I didn't know it was true. Luckily the coach called us to the line right before I impulsively reached out to see if Amaza-abs' stomach was as rock hard as it looked.

The rest of the repeats went a little like this:
#2 "this isn't so bad"
#3 "sweet, right on pace"
#4 "it's really, really hot out"
#5 "seriously, Amaza-abs, you had to sprint on that one?"
#6 "is it ok to call it after this one?"
#7 "I. Can. Barely. Move. My. Legs."
 #8 "I may vomit."

But, I did it! And, 30 minutes later when the nausea subsided, I was so glad I had gone. And, I'm glad to know about OnTrack Health & Fitness. The two coaches there (Kim and Kelly) were really nice and seemed to be offering great suggestions to their runners. I'm always humbled by the kindness of runners- once I step out of my comfort zone and meet new runners in a race or workout, I always leave feeling a great sense of connection to an awesome community. And now I know what rock hard abs look like up close. Thanks, Amaza-abs.