Saturday group run.

We had a great group show up again but this time we were honored with the appearance of GZ, Bob, and Steve the Kenyan. The lesson of the day:
Lucho- "So Steve, what pace are you running?"
Steve- "I'm just going to run."
We did 4 X 8:00 on a 1500m loop around a lake. The first interval Steve didn't start his watch and he pretty much just jogged. The second interval we went through the 1500 fairly easy and then pushed fairly hard (or at least I did) to finish. The third the same. And the last one was where my eyes got pried open in regards to just how far I have to go in terms of fitness. We went through the first 1500 in 4:42 (~5:00 pace) and Steve simply dropped the pace to ~4:30 and effortlessly pulled away from me like I had stopped. I was sprinting to simply not lose time.. in the last 3:00 he put about 1:00 on me. It was a beautiful thing.. to be fit, running well, and get crushed so easily. It rarely happens to me in training and as I was driving home I realized that this is what motivates me. So often in my training I have relied on the ass kicking to come from myself. To have someone to run with that is at the level I want to be at, makes me crazy motivated to be better. I think it's simple to fall in to a certain level of complacency when we aren't challenged. A day like today really is appreciated.. it was almost a gift to get hammered down because I might have learned more from today's workout than any I have done as runner.