Week 8 began with the usual track workout. The only problem tonight was the local high school track is being resurfaced, so I had to settle for a straight stretch of path to run my 400m repeats. The weather was a fraction cooler than previous weeks, but still hot and quite humid. I also wasn’t sure how much Sunday’s 16 miler took out of me.
After almost 20 minutes of warming up with several striders to get my legs ready, I set off on my first quarter mile (as measured on my Garmin). Usually on the track I’m able to check my pace every 100m, but on the unmarked path, I was kind of running blind. The pace felt quick but I knew it wasn’t at my limit or close to the 1:17 per 400m the plan called for.
I stopped my watch at 1:28 and knew I’d need to try harder for the remaining 11 x 400s!
After a brief 1:30 rest, I set off again, slightly quicker this time but into quite a stiff breeze. I was pleased to read 1:23 on my watch – still not my goal pace, but I wasn’t sure exactly how far I was running.
The next 4 x 400s were hard work, but I was very happy with my consistency – 1:23 1:22 1:22 and 1:22. It was also nice to have the luxury of a 2:30 break before the second batch of 6 x 400s.
At this point the workout got really difficult. My leg speed was suffering and I wasn’t running as efficiently as I should have been. I decided to just concentrate on each 400m and not think about what was left.
One by one I made it through the repeats, and again my consistency was much better than previous weeks. Not quite sure what happened with the 1:25, but the 1:19 at the end was most pleasing! Here are the second batch of splits: 1:23 1:21 1:25 1:20 1:22 and 1:19.
Now I just have a 3 miles Short Tempo run on Thursday before the Rock’n’Roll Half Marathon this weekend. I’m really looking forward to the race and am curious to see what time I’ll be able to finish in. Watch this space for details….