Ladder Intervals

It was slightly warmer this morning, maybe in the mid-60's, humid, overcast. Still, not too bad for this late in the year here. A pretty big gang gathered for the workout. Gilbert sent those doing the Texas Roundup 10k on Saturday out to do fartleks on the trail, the usual 10 x 1:00 intervals that we do before races. The rest of us warmed up over to Austin High School for what Gilbert deemed a "medium" speedwork session. Beware Burundian promises of what constitutes "medium" speed.

Anyway, our warmup run was actually sanely paced today. Some folks were still feeling a little tired after Tuesday's circuit or 6x800m workouts, and the gang just rolled it a little easier than normal. We concentrated on drills more than normal after we discovered that Gilbert was paying attention to them last time. Then, it was time to hit the track. The workout was a reverse ladder, going 600m, 400m, and 200m, all at 10k race pace, with a 200m jog between. After each set, we were to walk a full 400m lap. 3-5 sets were prescribed. My gang was Henry, Joseph, and Caitlin. I thought we'd do them at about 2:50 for the 600m, 1:52 for 400m, and 0:56 for the 200m, which would be about 7:30 pace for the mile. Gilbert told us to do 2:45 for 600m, which translates to 1:50 and 0:55. Easier math.

We were off. We did a pretty good job of maintaining steady and accurate pace, which is the trick in this sort of workout. Caitlin did 3 sets, and Joseph and Henry did 4 with me. Gilbert stopped us after 4 sets, saying that was enough. The times?

Set 1: 2:45, 1:54, 0:55
Set 2: 2:47, 1:50, 0:55
Set 3: 2:48, 1:47, 0:51 (got a little frisky late)
Set 4: 2:40, 1:48, 0:54

For 4800m of intervals, we averaged 7:21/mile pace, very nice. I thought we did fine with the consistency of pacing. This was a challenging workout, mainly mentally. Jogging the 200's between the speedy bits made it a little tougher, too.

The cooldown run back to RunTex was with Alex, Frank, Henry, and Joseph. We moved it along pretty well, at about 9:10 pace. Too fast, really for a true cooldown, but what the heck. For the day, we covered 7.7 miles at an average pace of 9:03, if you include all the 200m jogs. The average pace for the actual running bits, including warmup and cooldown was 8:30/mile. A solid workout, for sure.

Afterwards, Frank and Alex joined me for the full stretching routine, which was a really good idea. Then, Frank had to get to work, and Alex and I did the full core/ab exercise routine. I did 4x30 crunches/leg extensions, 2x20 "Jan" crunches, 2x20 "Canoe" crunches, 2x25 back raises, 2x15 pushups. I even did 4 pullups at Alex's urging. That's a new record for me.

It was a really great day of exercise, and it was fun as always to hang out with my running pals. Tomorrow is back to the gym, then a nice relaxed 10 miler with Alex and Frank on Saturday. Gilbert has also given us our marching orders for next week, although I may have to adjust them ever so slightly. I plan on taking rest days next week to try and taper a bit for Indy.