First 1-Mile Intervals in a LONG Time

It had been nearly 14 months since my last trip to the track (to do some 200s before the Midsummer Mile), and over 15 months since I did 1600s. In late May of 2013, I did 3x1600 with 90 secs rest in 5:39, 5:29, and 5:25. Last night, I headed out for that same workout.

I got to the St. Thomas track and found a football game going on, so I went back home. I did some mile repeats around our neighborhood on a loop that's NEARLY a mile. I wore my Garmin so I'd know how much more I'd have to run to make each 1 mile.

There are a lot of downsides to not doing intervals on the track, and here are a few: uneven footing, traffic, curbs, hills, 90-degree turns, and not knowing your 0.25 split. I had to dart around a few cars (even though this is a route where I'm crossing side-streets that all have stop signs), and I kept trying to look at my watch to see my first 0.25 split to see how I was starting each interval. Oh, and it's not a HILLY route, but I really started to feel the hills on #2 and 3:

922 feet near the start, 888 at the 0.75 mark, climbing back to the finish of each interval.

I did some "brick intervals" in July as part of that "duathlon workout" I like to do out of my garage, but this was going to my be first real running speed workout since getting injured a year ago. So I didn't have any idea where my times would be. I was hoping to maybe do 5:50 dropping down to 5:30-something. But I wasn't able to be that fast. Here were my (consistent) intervals and my half-mile splits:

2:55, 2:53 = 5:48
2:55, 2:53 = 5:48
2:56, 2:52 = 5:48

The "hill," intersections, and turns slowed me down a BIT, and being I did mile repeats, I ran nearly 2 seconds longer than 1600 repeats. So on the track, they'd be more like 5:45 (or even faster). Not where I'd hoped to be, but I have to remember that it's been a while since my last speed workout. It takes time! And I did it without anything hurting, so that's a great sign!

Super speedy back-to-back USA Triathlon National Champ Heather Lendway tweeted me saying we should hit the track together sometime. (Seriously, if you DON'T know that name, you must not be from around here. In her 10 tris so far this year, she placed first 9 times, only taking 2nd in her first ever draft-legal race. Six of those 9 wins were with course records. SIX course records THIS YEAR!) Here was a little back-and-forth on Twitter last night:

After Heather's statements about BFF Devon "needing some work," I'm not sure I can workout with her. We'll see. Those were pretty harsh words.

Check out Heather's blog and follow her on twitter.