800m Repeats

Today was one of those epiphanies that occur from time to time in running (and, I suppose, in Real Life as well). More on that later, but it was a good workout!

It was a great, crisp, clear morning when we met at RunTex. About 48 degrees, where it stayed for the duration of our workout. It was a pretty big group today, about 30 of us, and we enjoyed the warmup jog over to Austin High School's track. I floated back and forth in the pack, talking with various different folks, and even though it was dark, it was a nice little run on the trail.

After the drills, Gilbert put us into groups, and assigned goal times for our 800m repeats. We were to take 2:00 of active jog/walk rest between each repeat, and marathoners were to do 8x800m, other runners to do 5 or 6. Last time out, about a month ago, I did 6x800m at an average time of 3:40, with a last fast lap of 3:33. Gilbert, however, told me that today I should shoot for doing 8x800m at an average of 3:30-3:35. I tried to argue with him, but then shut up pretty quickly and joined my group for the first repeat. It wasn't much of an argument, mind you, but I did want to point out to him what I had done last time. Gilbert told us that this was a strength workout primarily, but that didn't cause us to run easier, that's for sure.

Our main group was Caitlin, Margaret, Amy, Frank and me. Frank and Margaret led the first two repeats. I thought the first one felt crazy fast, but by the end of it, I felt okay with the pace. I trailed the faster folks on that first 800, settling into the rhythm of the workout, and was a little slower on that repeat only. From there, we just didn't let up. I led 3 of the intervals in the middle, with Frank or Margaret running alongside. Caitlin dropped out after 5 repeats, since she's not training specifically for a race, and Amy and Margaret dropped after 6, since they are not marathoning. That left Frank and I for the last two. We chatted a bit during the 7th repeat, and our pace slacked off just a few seconds. On the last one, though, Frank pulled ahead, and I tagged along to finish with a really strong last 800. The numbers? 3:38, 3:32, 3:29, 3:35, 3:29, 3:29, 3:34, 3:22. Fairly consistent, about 3:31 average time, average pace 7:04/mile. The nice cool weather helped make this workout possible, and I guess I'm getting in better running shape every day.

We finished off the track stuff with 3 x 200m striders, concentrating on form. Those felt pretty good to stretch out the legs and shake out the residual fatigue from the 800's. The easy cooldown run back to RunTex with Henry, Alex and Frank was fun, as we chatted and laughed about a variety of topics, none of which shall be revealed here. What happens on the trail stays on the trail, right?

The epiphany that I had occurred during the 5th or 6th repeat, when I realized that our pace for 800m was as fast or faster than my pace doing 400m repeats just a little while ago. On October 19th, I did 10x400m at an average pace of 1:44. Today, two months later, more or less, I did 8 x 800m repeats at an average pace of 3:31, just a tiny bit slower than my 400m pace then (2 or 3 seconds over 800m). There were 4 repeats today where I was at or faster than those 400m paces. It's very empowering to see this type of hard evidence that the training is having a real effect.

I know that one can use these "Yasso 800's" to predict a marathon race time, but I don't think I'll put too much stock in them just yet. I'll use my actual Distance Challenge race times as more accurate predictors of my Freescale Marathon time, right now in the 3:56 range. The 800's today would "predict" a Freescale in the 3:31 range, which is crazy to me. We'll see in February, but right now, I'll take this nice workout and enjoy it for a while.

Total day 8 miles, average pace 8:05/mile, including warmup and cooldown.