Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Track Tuesday Part 2

Last week I expressed my excitement over track workouts.

This week was 400m repeats - my absolute favorite.  They are short, fast and awesome.

Pink spikes from my college track days

After work I headed to the usual running club meet up for a short warm up before hitting the track.  My running buddy was there and although she thought I was crazy about looking forward to the 400s, (I think) she was a little bit excited about the workout.

Coach suggested 2-3 sets of 4x400m at race pace or mile race pace (~93 seconds or 6:12min/mile) with 200m jog recovery

The first set went pretty well but my legs were stubborn and not used to the fast pace.  I tried to keep the pace consistent and not start out too fast because I knew I still had a lot of repeats ahead of me.

95, 94, 94, 94

The rest felt good and my legs speed off on the first repeat of the second set.  I had to reel myself back in so I wouldn't burn myself out for this set.  On the last repeat of this set, I kind of zoned out a little bit and feel off the pace.

95, 94, 93, 95

Coached stopped us after this set and asked how many we had done.  Once again he stressed the idea of only running 6% of your mileage for the Tuesday speed workout (for me 30 mi/week = 1.8 mi for Tuesday workout).  I was already over my limit but I was feeling good so he let me do 2 more 400s! YAY!  My legs felt ready to go so I speed up for the last one just to check out my speed!

92, 89

10x400m done with an average time of 93.5 seconds!  Not bad at all for not running too many "fast" intervals.  My legs are so used to tempo pace, the race pace sure did shock them!


What's your favorite speed or interval workout? 

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

400s might be my least favorite! hahah. i <3 800s.

awesome job on the workout too! i bet the next time you tackle this you'll be able to go faster since you were able to do extra repeats

Marlene said...

Speedy feet!!! 400s are sick. I kind of prefer the longer once because it's not ALL OUT, although it is close enough to "all out" that they are still pretty crazy. :)

NICE WORK!!

Aron said...

I don't think I have a favorite ;) they all hurt LOL

GREAT job on yours!!

Suzy said...

Great job! I was on a track for the first time since high school on Tuesday for 8 x 30/30. So far those are the only ones I have to go by...so ask again if I have a favorite after this training cycle.

The Jesse said...

it seems like everyone is talking about speed work this week and i'm loving it! 400's are my fav; but i also like 800's because i think i can pace myself better. yesterday was my first time back at a track doing official speed work in a long time. i loved every hurting minute of it :)

Fruit Fly said...

I've only ever done ONE without realizing I was! My friend tells me I did 3X400 with a recovery period in between each of them? Does that make sense? I wanted to do more but there were kids thrashing around on the track with their bikes. I chose to just run back home.

After my race this weekend I'm looking forward to doing this once a week and for a longer time!

No Longer Using said...

HOLLER!!! that 89 at the end- blazing!!!! you have an awesome final effort/kick and i know i commented on this before!!! and of course a hardcore total effort as usual :) you rock the track, baby!!!!

Nicole said...

400s make me want to throw up... in a good way.

as for the veil.. we should start an email... email me chambernic@gmail.com and ill share my story with you!

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

Nice work! I actually have not done much speed work/interval training. I am sure I will when I start that running club in July, though!

Amy said...

Nice! I'm starting to like speedwork more and more. My new training plan has a different interval workout every week, and I'm loving it! You are so speedy!

Rebecca said...

I am just getting to catching up on blog reading... and yes you are totally crazy, but you are right in that I was a little bit excited about the workout. It was definitely painful, but I can see how its benefitial. If you hadn't been pacing me I think I would have been all over the place!