1 Mile Training (and RACING Tomorrow!)

First, this tweet:

100% true. Sweat dripping off my face was sometimes blown forward by
my labored breathing, and it hit the boys more than a few times.

Ever since running a 5:02 at the TC 1 Mile back in May, I've been wondering if I could get sub-5 again this year. I ran my first 1 mile in 2008 in 5:00.7, and since then (up until this May) every 1 mile has been sub-5. So a few weeks ago, I looked up some 1-mile specific workouts that Coach Jen Harrison gave me 5 years ago. I'm not including all the details (I don't want to "give away" her workouts), but the 4 workouts from back then were:

- 12x200
- 8x400
- 16x200
- 6x200 (a few days pre-race as a final burst of speed)

I could over-think this all day, but I figured I shouldn't just bang out 4 track workouts over about 3 weeks when I hadn't done a track workout in a few years. (That would injure me.) I told myself it'd be good if I could do 3 out of these 4. I figured the first 200s workout was a good "ease" into these workouts, and I figured the final shorter 6x200 workout was a good pre-race workout. (Only I did that workout 5 days pre-race this time as opposed to 3 days pre-race a few years back because I don't recover the same as I used to in my youth.) So that left kicking out one of the 2 middle workouts. The 16x200 is the most intense workout, but I threw that one out in the name of "I don't only want to do 200s - some variety is probably good." Who knows if that was the right call or not.

Here's the first intervals workout (12x200), and here's the second one (8x400). Then we spent 6 days traveling to 11 state parks mid-last week through Monday of this week.

On Tuesday, I took the boys to the track and did the final quick 6x200 workout. Five years ago, I descended them from 32 to 30, averaging 31.45 / 200. This time, I descended them with the first 3 at 34, then the final 3 at 33, 32, and 31, for an average of 33.40 / 200. I was QUITE happy with that. I figured I'd run some at 35 and then try to make some faster. But the final descending times felt good. BUT WHO KNOWS IF ANY OF THIS MEANS I'LL BREAK 5 TOMORROW! I've just put in some effort. I don't deserve to break 5 (I HATE the word "deserve"), but we'll see if some bursts of speed over the last 3 weeks can get my time down a few seconds from this May.

Racing at noon tomorrow! Here goes nothing!!!....