One of the benefits to living in southern NH is access to some great facilities. It also helps to be part of a very active running club (GCS). The two combined provide a nice change to the dark, cold days and nights of winter running.
Our coached indoor winter track session began last night at the Hampshire Dome in Milford,NH and will continue for the next 12 weeks. It's an awesome way to keep that speed up through the winter months.
Hampshire Dome is HUGE! It's a 94,000 sq ft indoor facility housing 3 soccer/lacrosse fields and most importantly an indoor track. I believe the track is 1/5 of a mile around and has banked corners (how cool is that), and it is fast (I thinks so anyways).
Gate City has 3 coaches helping out (Jim Stronach, Keith OBrien and Richie Blake), dividing up the members based on ability.
Last nights workout consisted of 10 x 400m repeats with 200m rest at 5k pace. Although the track is 1/5 of a mile, it is marked (with tape anyways) out for 400m, which turns out to be about 1 1/4 laps.
I was really surprised how well I felt considering I was only one day removed from back to back races on Saturday and Sunday. I felt strong the entire night and had an excellent workout, averaging 83 sec/400m for the first 5 repeats and 80 sec/400m for the last 5 repeats.
Jim Hansen was kind enough to pace with me for a good portion of the workout. Thanks Jim!
I'm already looking forward to next weeks workout...
