Tuesday, July 17, 2012

My Favorite Track Workout

(if it wasn't ungodly hot!!!)

This was the temperature in the middle of my workout and notice, it's after 7:00pm.


The workout looked like this:

1 mile warm up
2 X (6 X 400 at 1:31 pace) with 1:30 rest interval
2:30 rest interval in between sets
1 mile cool down

I started with the 1 mile warm up and was already sweating bullets.  But, I love 400s so I thought, this ought not to be too bad.  And for the first three it wasn't.

Interval 1 - 1:28
Interval 2 - 1:27
Interval 3 - 1:27

Starting with the fourth 400 I was beginning to lose it mentally.  I was trying to focus but all I could think was "I'm gonna barf."  The times were still good though.

Interval 4 - 1:27
Interval 5 - 1:28
Interval 6 - 1:29

Instead of the 2:30 rest break between sets, I took a full five minutes.  I refilled my water bottle and took a bathroom break.

Interval 7 - 1:29

And the worst of the worst...my iPod died.  NOOOO!!!!  Guess I was sweating too much.  Why can't Apple come up with a waterproof iPod shuffle since it's supposed to be used for exercise?

Interval 8 - 1:29
Interval 9 - 1:30
Interval 10 - 1:29
Interval 11 - 1:30
Interval 12 - 1:31

Then I threw up in my mouth.  Ew!  I know!  But, god was it hot.

I finished out the workout with an easy mile cool down.  

This was my favorite workout when I did the half marathon training plan and has so far, been my favorite workout for marathon training.  I love 400s.  They're tough but doable and short compared to everything else in marathon training.  

It begs the question, though....if I can run 12 400s at roughly a 6:00 pace, how come I couldn't have run a 6:00 mile in the last race?

1 comment:

Andrea Hill said...

Nice job!!!
The answer to your question is that physically, you can...