Track workout

This was something of a spur of the moment workout, I decided on Wednesday morning that I was feeling good enough to do a workout and could really use a little speed prior to the mile race on Friday.

I headed up to Nashua (I coach the marathon group for the Gate City Striders) and hit the trails around Mine Falls for a warm-up 3 mile run (21:51).  Then it was onto the track for a mile with some strides to get ready for the workout.

I did 4 x 400 with a 400 rest in:

73.7

73.6

73.6

71.8

I never felt comfortable, it was hot and I don’t usually do workouts alone.  I almost talked myself out of continuing on with the rest of the workout.  My mantra was “it’s only 200, how hard can it be?”

I took an 800 rest after the last 400 then went into 4 x 200 with 200 rest in:

35.1

35.1

35.7

35.2

Wow, those were really hard.  That is the maximum leg turnover I’ve got.  I had nothing left to go even a little faster.

I did a nice easy 2 mile warm-down (15:53) and they laid down in the shade for an hour just drinking water and trying to recover before people showed up for their workout.  Hopefully this will help me crack 5 minutes in Salem on Friday.

Going through my workout log I found that I’ve done the same workout once before over 24 years ago!  On January 20, 1987 I ran “slightly” faster at the Harvard Indoor track running:

63

65

65

65

and

30

30

29

29

Five days later I set my personal best for 2 miles running an 8:52.