Tuesday Night Track Workout

Tonight was my first effort at a speed workout doing 800 meter (half mile) repeats with 2 minutes rest in between. With the early summer heat setting in the evening temperatures were in the mid-90 degree range at the start.

My early warm up mile went well, too well in fact as I did the first mile in 10:14. Following that I did some warm up drills with my training group. After that we did the 800 meter repeats with a 2 minute rest between sessions. I completed 4 of these with times of 3:48, 3:50, 3:45 and 3:54. I think this is a good bit faster than I would have expected to have done a year ago. When I went back in my log to last June the most comparable workout that I could compare this one to was a 2 Mile Time Trial where the first mile was in 8:35 and the second mile was in 9:30.

Although I can tell that I am not fully recovered from the recent Ironman race, it did feel good to be getting back into a real training workout.

There's no telling how sore I will be feeling tomorrow...

Track Night 7/27/10

Tonight's track night felt like a breakthrough performance for me on a night that was not quite as hot as normal, though definitely a very humid, steamy night. I ran a set of 1600 - 1200 - 600 - 300 on a school track, with 2 - 3 minutes of recovery jogging between each set. All running was to stay below lactate threshold heart rate. My surprise was an 8:09 1600 meters (mile), a speed I likely have not seen around 20 years, and afterwards I maintained a steady 9 min/mile pace through the balance of the running part of the workout.

I certainly consider this workout to be showing me a breakthrough after I have been at a training plateau for a good while.

I celebrated with a small serving of lowfat frozen yogurt and granola at Orange Leaf .

Coming up tomorrow are 2400 yard swim and 60 minute bike workouts.


Longhorn IM 70.3 Countdown...82 days to go!

Track Night 7/20/10

Tuesday night means an hour at the track with OutRival Racing. Tonight's weather was warm and humid, though not hot due to some rains and cloud cover earlier in the day.

Tonight's workout (after an extended warm up period) was a 2 mile time trial, which I ran in 17:48 at a fairly steady pace throughout as each half mile split was within 6 seconds of the average pace. I ran this same run about a month ago and was 9 seconds faster but with a higher heart rate.

Overall, I'd have been happier to have beaten the previous time (just my competitive nature, I guess!), however I have to be happy to repeat a workout with an average pace under 9 minute miles.

Tuesday Night Track

Tuesday is the track training night for my training group.

Last night was our second session and after warming up and doing track drills I was running a 2 mile time trial for my primary training. I finished with a 17:39 time, which is a speed I have not seen for many years. It's not fast but it sure is fast for me! I guess it is just some proof that all my training is paying off, as I am quite sure that I could not have done this a year ago.