Back to the Track #8

After 6 weeks without any trackwork, it was time to get back today and run some 1200s.  Chanage of location: now that the highschool has started doing their trackwork in the mornings I relocated to the local college.  It's just over 2 miles away and a pretty nice track.

Last time I ran 1200s I was doing them in 4:29 (6:01 pace).  This week the plan was 4:21 (5:50 pace) - A big step up in pace.  My recent 5k and half marathon showed that I am getting fitter and I have a pretty agressive training schedule.  This is Daniels' VDOT 55 for those of you that speak Daniels.  My half was 54.25, so this was a bit of stretch but the last few weeks have gone well, and my tempo runs have been pretty good.

4:21 means 87 seconds per lap, which doesn't seem that much faster than the 89-90 that I ran last time....  Here's how it went:

1. first lap 80!  man, that was fast.  finished in 4:16 (5:43 pace). I am gonna pay for that I know
2. payback time - struggled big time to run a 4:23, so decided to stretch the recovery from 90 seconds to 3 minutes
3. 4:26 - ugly, ugly, ugly
4. determined to get this one back on track, I started OK but slowed and gave up at 800m in 2:58.   decided to jog a couple laps and see if I could recover and salvage the workout.
5. Decided I would do 4:24 or better.  ran a 4:23
6. Decided I would finally run a 4:21, but failed and ran a 4:25, which included having to sprint the last 150 meters.

Overall it averages 4:23 but it was pretty much a mess.  I guess the 8 second jump was a little big after not doing track for 6 weeks, and the first lap was just suicide.  Next time I hope with a little more smarts I can run them in 4:21.  The goal before Ottawa is to get down to 6x1200 in 4:18, so I have some work ahead of me.

Then late this afternoon, just for grins I ran my second run of the day as I skipped yesterday.  It was a hilly 15 miler out on the trails.  A great run, although I started to get tired on the last mile.

Rest of the week has been OK:

Monday was a recovery 5, Tuesday I skipped and Wednesday was a great tempo in the morning (7 miles at 6:27, including my first ever sub 40 minute 10k) and a second run of 9 miles of hills in the evening.  Off tomorrow as I am travelling to Virginia, and then a 20 miler somewhere in Virginia is on the schedule for Sunday.  So it'll be high 60s for teh week, with 60+ coming on just 3 days.  Not smart, but that's how it happened.