1,000m Repeats

This was a funny workout by the end of it. We gathered at RunTex under ominous skies at 6:00 am for our scheduled 1,000m repeat workout. The trail has been flooded around Town Lake, so we decided to do the repeats on the track instead of on the road at Zilker Park. There were only about 10 of us there, and we picked our way carefully along the way to Austin High School, running a little further than usual due to detours, but we got there in one piece. We were met there by more and more and more Gazelles as we did the drills. It seemed like on every different drill, a new person would pop up, so by the time we were ready to workout, there were probably 30 folks there.

Gilbert had the people racing at the Turkey Trot 5 miler on Thursday do 8-10 x 400m. The rest of us got to do 1000m repeats, with 3:00 rest between, including a jog of 200m back to the start each time. 80% effort, as usual, and for a change, we were going to actually run them at 80% instead of crazy fast. 5 repeats for non-marathoners, and 7 for marathoners.

It was totally humid, 100%, with a mist/fog/drizzle thing happening the whole workout. About 65 degrees, but it was a day that only dedicated runners would get out there.

My calf was tight, but it loosened up during the drills, so I figured I'd start and see what happened. We had a large group: Frank, Margaret, Joseph, Amy, Henry, and myself. Frank, Henry and I had raced the Bison Half on Sunday, and the others had not. I let the others lead out, and we knocked off the first repeat in a comfortable 4:54. It was an effort, but not crazy fast or anything like that. We took turns leading the next 4 intervals, and we were remarkably consistent: 4:57, 4:56, 4:53, 4:51. Amy and Margaret had had enough after that, as well as Henry, so it was down to Joseph, Frank and me for the rest of the day. Frank and Joseph really pushed the 6th interval, but I held back a bit, because I really wanted to do the full 7 repeats for a change. They covered the 6th one in 4:25 or so, and I came across in a faster 4:37. Still feeling fine, I did the 7th interval, and Joseph ended up joining me. I pushed the last one just a bit, and finished it in 4:28.

I was very pleased with this workout, both at the good pacing and how good I felt at the end. The return run to RunTex was uneventful, and we finished a good workout just before the big rains came.

Total day just over 9 miles. 7 x 1000m average pace was 7:44/mile, plenty fast for two days after a hard half marathon effort.