4 miles @ ~8:52 pace

During last Saturday's Seneca Creek trail journey C-C intrigues me with her description of the "ladder" of speedwork, so today at the UM track I try to climb one ... but I don't do a very good job, with times for 400 + 800 + 1200 + 1600 + 1200 + 800 + 400 meters of 1:48 + 4:05 + 6:47 + 9:25 + 7:00 + 4:23 + 1:58 respectively. Between rungs I walk a lap to get my heart rate out of the death zone. (Adding those recovery laps into the average gives a total of 6 miles at 11:10 net pace.) Throughout the ordeal I'm wearing a new "Ultimate Direction" brand "Walkabout" fanny pack, picked up earlier today at RnJ from the half-price bin. It feels great and shows no tendency to bounce even with a full water bottle. (Perhaps the advertised "designed for a comfortable fit on a woman's hips" is just what my shapely derrière demands?)

Afterwards I amble to the Student Union to drag Merle and Robin away from the video-game-dance machine, and on the way back to the car one young gentleman avers that he can beat me in a lap around the track. I try to dissuade him from taking on his Old Man, but he insists so all three of us blast off ... and I soundly defeat the challenger, but am in turn surprised by the kick of the other son, who finishes ~5 seconds ahead of my ~1:55 quarter mile.