A New "Style" of Track Workout (For Me)

Yesterday, I took another trip to the track after dropping the boys off at school. I figured it'd be my last track workout before my 10 mile "race" in 15 days. I looked back through the workouts from Laurie (our coach for our gym's running team) as she posts workouts before each Thursday's team track workout. I found one that sounded interesting:

6 x 400m w/1 min rest
3-5 min recovery
6 x 300m w/45 sec rest
3-5 min recovery
6 x 200m w/30 sec rest
3-5 min recovery

These intervals are speedy!! Suggested pace: 5k race pace.

That's a LOT of intervals, and some SHORT rests (especially near the end)... at least shorter than I'm used to.

A chilly, clear, bright day at the track.


Frost still on the clover in the shade.

I figured I should shoot for about 1:25 for the 400s, as that's faster than 5k pace. That's 5:40/mile pace, which is a pace I've only held for like 3 or 4 5ks (all *years* ago). But I've also learned that I can run shorter races (and intervals) faster than I "should" be able to, but I can't hold equivalent paces for longer races - lots more on that in this old post.

My first 400 was 1:22, and then the rest were under 1:20! And the 60 sec rest seemed QUICK to me, as I'm used to doing longer intervals with longer rest (like 2-3 minutes). Here was my first set of intervals:

400s: 1:22.7, 1:19.3, 1:19.4, 1:17.4, 1:18.6, 1:18.1
Average: 1:19.25
4:00 rest (walking and stretching a bit)

Then came the 300s. I've NEVER ran 300 repeats before, and I don't even know if I've ran a 300 during any sort of track workout. And when the rest dropped down to 45 seconds, it surprised me! I didn't want to really pick up up the pace here, but I just wanted to maintain... so I figured I'd be around 57 seconds.

300s: 58.2, 55.6, 55.9, 56.4, 55.9, 56.2
Average: 56.4
3:58 rest (walking back to start, stretching a moment)

The start of the 200s was the only time my legs felt like they did during "normal" intervals - where I had a few minutes rest, and then I started with heavy legs. I was going to run these "solidly," but not sprint too hard.

200s: 37.1, 36.5, 36.6, 36.2, 36.3, 36.4
Average: 36.5

In all 3 "sets," the first interval was the slowest. And I ran the 200s all within 1 second of each other. Nice.

A sweaty selfie (with the "vein of approval") after all 18 intervals.

The biggest difference with this vs my "normal" intervals doesn't sound like much in writing, but it's noticeable on the track:

In "normal" intervals (for me), I run farther, take a 90 sec to 3 minute rest, and then do that a few more times. I start each interval with my heart rate and breathing under control, but with heavy/tired legs. Part of the idea for doing intervals like this (in my mind) is to teach my body that it can still run fast/hard with tired legs.

In these intervals, I never caught my breath or controlled my heart rate within the 3 "sets." I started 16 out of 18 of these intervals with a high heart rate and still breathing hard, but my legs felt fine. (Remember, I said that starting the 200s felt "normal" to me: heavy legs but a recovered heart and lungs.) It was a noted difference. So instead of teaching my body to run fast/hard with tired legs, this one taught me to run fast/hard without being able to breathe comfortably.

I ran a 1 mile warm-up, and I ran a 3/4 mile cool down as well, to make it over 5 miles on the day. It was a nice change of pace on the track!