Now That Worked Out Well

After taking a much needed day off yesterday, I felt the need for speed today, even though I'll be doing speed with the guys tomorrow. So after work I headed over to where I used to live (about 2.5 miles away) to run repeats on the .4 mile oval that served as the block I lived on. It's a nice distance that forces you to dig a little deeper than 400s do. I usually do 5 repeats, with a .2 recovery, at an all-out pace - so all-out that occasionally I can't manage to do the fifth one. But I've come to the conclusion recently that I need to increase the distance covered in my speedwork sessions. So tonight my goal was to dial the pace back a bit and do 6 x .4 miles, with the usual .2 mile jogging recovery.

I usually do these anywhere from 2:08 to 2:14 when I do just 5 so today my target was more like 2:20. On the first one I hit 2:21. The pace was challenging but wasn't a killer. On the next 4 repeats I hit 2:17. Mr. Consistency. It was getting tougher but I wasn't dying and knew I'd be able to finish the 6th one strong. I turned it up a notch on the final repeat and posted a 2:12. I might have done a 7th if it were cooler. I did these at 6 PM and it was probably still around 90 and sunny. Also surprisingly windy.

I need to suggest these to the guys for our Thursday workout one of these days. It's just a sidewalk though - might get crowded.

Total distance Wednesday (8/22) - 4.6 miles, times: 2:21, 2:17, 2:17, 2:17, 2:17, 2:12.