These Kids Today

Last night was a track workout for me, and let me tell you, the Moline High School Track is a totally hopping place on a Tuesday night. No, really. There was a group of runners training together who seem to hit the track every Tuesday at around the same time as I do. And as an added bonus, there was a group of high school kids - members of the high school cross country team, judging by their t-shirts - who were also working out on the track.

In my years of high school cross country and track, I spent many, many hours on that track. It was the home of the 16 x 400 workout that was, for quite a while, the most physically difficult thing I'd ever done. The place where we'd have home track meets. The place where I learned to appreciate the smell of wet pavement. And, thanks to its incredibly poor surface, the place that gave me a stress fracture in each leg.

Ah, memories.

The track has since been resurfaced. Not only is it as spongy as running on a beautiful fluffy cloud of cotton candy, it's even a school-spirit inducing maroon. Every time I run on it, I appreciate how nice it is and think about my teenaged self hobbling over to the pool to do some water running because of the injured legs.

So, imagine my surprise when I saw two of the girls toting yoga mats "so it doesn't hurt my hands when I stretch." I immediately wanted to go into an Old Lady Rant.

You kids today! You have no idea how good you have it. When I was your age, our track was made out of the same concrete as the highway and was covered in broken glass. I still have pebbles embedded in my palms from stretching on it. And that's the way it was, and we liked it!

In other news, the workout was 5 x 1K repeats with 400 meter rest intervals. My goal was a 5:08 pace. Here's how it shook out:
5:03
4:58
5:04
5:10
5:01

Even without the benefit of a yoga mat.