It's very interesting being part of this club. We meet three times a week - Saturday mornings for long runs, Tuesday evenings for track workout, and Thursday evenings for tempo runs. Saturday's group tends to be older (I fit in) and made up of folks who are primarily marathoners or are training to be marathoners. Tuesday night's group, on the other hand, is made primarily of younger, FAST runners specializing in shorter races like 5Ks and 10Ks. Not only do I skew the average age up, I also skew the average time down! Its an eye opener when I kill myself to run a 400 in 1:45 to realize that I am almost twice as slow as the fastest finishers. Whew.
Yesterday's workout was "easy" because a lot of runners are tapering for the Carlsbad 5K, coming up this Sunday. So, we ran 8 X 400. My ugly results:
- Interval 1: 1:44
- Interval 2: 1:46
- Interval 3: 1:53 (note the trend here)
- Interval 4: 1:56
- Interval 5: 1:52
- Interval 6: 1:51
- Interval 7: 1:54
- Interval 8: 1:52
This one had my tongue swinging low. I'm still recovering - but I did sleep real well last night! The only downside to the workout was I only spent about 9 1/2 minutes in VO2Max heart range. That's a little less time than I'd like to spend (12 to 15 minutes), but is also a function of shorter intervals.
Today I'm looking forward to my recovery run. A nice, eeeaaaassssyyyy recovery run! Crystal Cove here I come!
This is what I love about speedwork. Suddenly even long runs sound very inviting as long as they're at an easy pace.
ReplyDeletenice job on the intervals! sometimes they are a welcome change to the norm, but then again some days i dread them! i also agree with brian, a speed day also makes those 'boring' easy runs seem wonderful :)
ReplyDeleteThis post just made me miss my track club's track night more than ever. I miss that's breathy, sweaty conclusion to the evening and deep sense of satisfaction that I didn't just go home and eat in front of the TV.
ReplyDeleteWe did 4 x 800's this week with my track club. I hear ya about being in the slow lane...you'd be speedy where I come from. My 400 split is about 2:30 :-))
ReplyDeleteGood for you for getting out there -- and raising up the average age.
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