800m Repeats

Back to Gazelle speedwork this morning, on a drizzly, humid morning (I hope this is the cool front that has been long-promised!). I felt great on the warmup, with no sign of the calf distress from yesterday. Drills went like clockwork. Gilbert grouped us up, and my group of Joseph and Amy got a new person, Heidi. We were to do one more repeat than the last time we did the workout. Amy and Joseph had done 5 last time, and I did 6, but we decided on 6 for a group goal, and if I felt great, I might go for 7. Our goal time was 3:40-3:45, according to Gilbert. I think I averaged something like 3:45 last time out (8 weeks ago).

We got in a good rhythm from the first, and knocked out our intervals in:

3:43, 3:38, 3:41, 3:41, 3:42, 3:33. We got a little frisky on the last one, but truthfully it didn't feel a lot harder than the previous ones. We were very consistent, and that was a very good sign. Joseph and I followed those up with 3 x 200m strides, concentrating on high knees and butt kick form. Those were knocked out at 0:54, 0:51, 0:46 (the last one was 6:10 mile pace!).

The rain held off while we were running, but I was soaked with humidity and sweat once we were done. Good run back to RunTex afterwards, and I did most of the long stretching routine once we got there.

A good day at the running office. I'm getting stronger and faster. The last time I did 800's, I did the same number of strides and 800's, but my pace for the fast stuff was 7:28/mile. This time, it felt comfortable for the most part (hard work, but comfortable), and I was 10 seconds faster per mile. A very good sign.

7.2 miles total workout at 8:36 average pace. 800's and 200's at average 7:17 pace.

Friday is a full day off, resting up for the 16 miler on Saturday. Gilbert is using the Freescale Marathon course for our workout, and we're doing the last 16 miles of the marathon course. I think this is a very good idea, to really get to know the course, especially the end, where your mind gets tired and your concentration can lapse. It's good to know as much as possible about the part of the course where you really have to bear down and fight to the finish.