3x1 Mile on the Track

I TRIED to hit the track for some intervals at the very end of Feb, but it was still snow covered, so I hit the treadmill for a 3x1 mile interval workout.

I've been outside since then for other hard runs, but I hit the track 10 days ago for the first time this year. It was my favorite 3x1 mile intervals with 3:00 of walking in between.

My regular watch is still on the fritz, so I wore my Garmin (which I hate doing on the track). Here's what my route looked like when I was done:

What did you expect? I like the green (slow) line showing
me s-l-o-w-l-y jogging off the track when I was done. Ha!

Note that there are many intervals that end BEFORE the start/finish line. That's because it would beep and take a lap at a half mile (that's how I have it set), but it'd be a few seconds short of the actual start/finish line. That's why I hate wearing my Garmin on the track - when running to a certain POINT (not a certain DISTANCE) I much prefer a watch.

My first interval was decently fast, so I didn't know where I'd be going from here:

- 2:50.39, 2:44.34 = 5:34.73

I dropped BOTH of those splits for my 2nd interval!!

- 2:48.31, 2:42.74 = 5:31.05

And 2 college guys showed up on the track just as I was starting my final interval, and their presence helped push me over that last interval. (They actually started running a bit behind me, and I pulled away from them - they were doing a mile as well.)

- 2:41.06, 2:38.97 = 5:20.03

Average: 5:28.60

With my long runs, I feel like I can go faster easier on the treadmill (no resistance, so it's a common belief), so I was happy to see these were faster than my treadmill 3x1 end of Feb where I averaged 5:37.33/mile. (That's the downside to the treadmill. It's GREAT when I want to push myself and force myself to maintain a certain speed, but it's BAD when I think "yeah, this is probably fast enough" when in reality [if I were outside] I'd be pushing a BIT more.)

I think my pace chart speaks for itself.

I don't think I sped up THAT much half way through the first interval (but I DID speed up as I didn't like seeing that 2:50 first half mile), so I think that could be a glitch. But notice in the 2nd and especially the 3rd interval: there are little bumps of speed around the track. It appears they coincide with running the turns. So either I run the turns a bit faster, or that's where my Garmin doesn't do as well which is why it took my half-mile splits just shy of 800 meters. (For what it's worth, the splits I shared above are true 800 meter splits and 1600 totals. I would let my Garmin take a split short of the line, but I'd keep running and manually take another split at the ACTUAL line and add those up. That's one of the reasons there are so many splits shown in that top image.)

That workout was about 10 days ago. Last week was an easier week. So it's back to some sort of speed work for me in a few days! Probably not on the track this week though.