Tuesday, November 11, 2008

400m Repeats

I was a little nervous going to practice yesterday as I had planned out my interval times. I was surprised when my coach told us to scale back on the 400s this week because we were inside. Let me explain - the indoor track at my school (and probably at any other school too) is not as soft or "cushiony" as the one outdoors and so we are prone to getting shin splits or other injuries by running on it too much. Also since there is a curve every 50m we run on the outside lanes (to avoid injury) aka we run MORE.

Abby and I went first and were running in lane 4 so we found the staggered start. It had to be like 30 meters from the original start line. We ran our first 400m in 85 seconds and I was happy with that - not too fast and not too slow. I hand off the baton to Lauren - the freshman, she in turn hands off to Allison.

Allison comes around on her final lap and hands off to Abby (since I ran with the baton first) and I am running on the outside of lane 4. We are going much faster than the previous 400m and when we reach the finish I look at my watch - 88 seconds! So we ran slower? Uhhh I don't think so!!

The third 400m - I am running on the outside of lane 4 - we run it in 90 seconds but it feels faster than the previous run. In my head I am thinking - WHAT IS GOING ON!!!

So for the 4th one Abby and I get the baton and walk to the staggered start line and run the 400m. I look at my watch at the finish - 76 SECONDS!! I almost died on that one - we were going sooo fast and I was once again on the outside of lane 4, closer to lane 5!

For the 5th and final 400m we run from the original start line and the time is 90 seconds and I was DEAD. My arms/shoulders are screaming at me after just 100m and my legs do not want to move.

Abby and I walked 3 laps around the track for cool down - We determined that 3 out of the 5 intervals we ran HAD to be more than 400m. I was guessing about 30 meters extra. This morning I found THIS WEBSITE about track lane distances and how to calculate them. Apparently we ran 423.5 meters instead of 400...so that pretty much explains everything. I was ready for bed at about 7pm last night since I was so exhausted.

I now appreciate running on the outdoor track so much more and will miss it for the next 4 months : (

This is finals week at school so the girls are working out this morning while I am at work - the "feels like" temp today isn't supposed to get above 34 degrees so I haven't decided what I will be doing for a workout or where I will be doing it.

14 comments:

No Longer Using said...

Whew that's cold. Boston has had a super mild late fall so far. KNOCKING ON WOOD. hehe. do you ever use the stationary bike? i usually do this 1-2 times a week and i feel like it's good for my legs. it also lets me catch up on magazines,... sometimes i'll do intervals on the bike just to check in with myself and see if i can push it a little.

Nicole said...

I'm freezing along with you.. winter is already killing me! I used to hate hate hate running indoor and i always ran soo much better outside. Great job with your repeats though

X-Country2 said...

The internet does not lie!

Great inside workout. The winter is killing me already, so I may have to find inside options. (But obviously not repeat 400s. I'm not nearly that tough.)

Unknown said...

That had to be frustrating not realizing the distance that you were running. Glad you figured it out. That would have ate at me until I figured out what was going on.

Julianne said...

I don't like running on tracks at all... indoor or outdoors but I guess I'd prefer the outdoors, if I had to pick! Great job on your 400s, though. OH and good luck on your finals!! Omg, thank goodness I am done with school stuff!

Marcy said...

Dayum that sounds like it was killer! Awesome times, chica! (even if the distance was off LOL)

Aron said...

you are so awesome!!! congrats on a great workout :)

tfh said...

I can't imagine doing 400s (or like you did more than 400s) on the indoor track-- ugh, sometimes I ran around it in college and it was so frustrating to have to go around so many times to make a mile.

Felice Devine said...

It's a drag not to be able to run outside, isn't it? Good luck with your finals :-)

Marlene said...

Way to push yourself at the end. Sounds like a kilelr workout!

The Laminator said...

Nice workout J. May you ace your finals as well as you did your 400m workout.

Meg said...

Sounds like you gave yourself a much harder workout than you intended! I thought tracks had a staggered start to compensate for the different lengths of each loop, but i guess you have to be careful if you're doing more than one lap?

N.D. said...

Whoa, nice repeats there, 423.5!! I love a nice hard workout!

Melanie said...

I always hated running on an indoor track back when I was in high school. To this day I can't stand to run on the indoor track at my gym. I have to do the treadmill.

And I SO recommend the sports massage. Seriously... it was the best hour of my life these past few weeks!