Two Good Interval Workouts (Bike and Run)

I had a solid training week last week. On Wednesday, I went for a ride that had 3x5 mile intervals as part of it. I've been trying to work on my bike speed after a lazy winter and spring in the saddle. I did these down the Greenway Trail early in the morning, but I had to turn around before my normal ending point because of construction. (So each interval had a slight slow down and 180 turn that I normally don't have in the past.) Here's what I rode:

- 21.5 mph, 13:56
- 22.0 mph, 13:38
- 22.1 mph, 13:35

That's honestly faster than I figured I could do them, but it was also a perfect morning to ride! And I liked that I had a gentle descend in those times.

Then, the next day, I hit the track with my YWCA Endurance Sports running team for the first time in YEARS. I think the last workout I did with them was 4 years ago as seen in this post when I took a post-workout sad face selfie with Nicole because BFF Devon wasn't there:

This was back when Devon actually ran. And was concerned
with his physical fitness. Much different than today.

Here was the group of 22 of us before intervals last week:

A track full! (Me in the yellow between lanes 3 and 4.)

The workout called for 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, and 200 at 5K pace with 2 minutes rest. As the workout started, it was easier to just remember 3 laps, 2.5 laps, 2 laps, 1.5 laps, 1 lap, and a half lap. I told myself that my 5K pace now would probably be a bit slower than 5:40 pace, but I went off that and figured that'd be 1:25/lap. (But I also thought I could/should be faster than that, because I'm usually faster at shorter distances.) I took off on my own as Tim and someone else are about my speed, but I was still substantially faster. Here's what I ran (with full lap or half-lap splits):

1:18, 1:23, 1:22 = 4:04.15
1:20, 1:22, 0:40 = 3:23.73
1:18, 1:18 = 2:37.44
1:15, 0:37 = 1:52.95
1:11.67
0:34.15

So notice EVERY lap was faster than my 1:25 5K pace! And I still had a bit more left to give - I didn't kill myself out there in the name of self-preservation. Also, I slowly sped up: I asked Coach Laurie pre-workout if that was OK, and she had no issues with that. (My first 5 intervals had average lap speeds of 1:21, 1:21, 1:18, 1:15, and 1:11.) My workout with the team 4 years ago was a bit slower for each lap, but it was also a bit longer: 4 miles of hard running then vs. less than 3 miles now.

Runners mid-workout with a gang in the distance on the far right resting at the 200 meter mark.


A group resting and a group interval-ing.

Thanks for the workout team!

My knee's been a little achy, so I can't regularly do interval workouts. I'm hoping I can make it 3 times this summer - once each summer month. It's a little easier now that I moved my run days to Tue/Thur/Sat as of last year (and this interval workout is always Thurs morning). It's hard nearly impossible to do during the school year because the boys start school at 7:50 (I drop them off), and intervals start 6 city miles away at 7:00. So there's no good way to work that out, unless my wife has the day off. But hopefully a few more times before school starts!