800s and 400s on the Track

Last Friday (nearly 2 weeks after the Brian Kraft 5K), I hit the track for some shorter-than-usual intervals. There were 2 things that were different about this: instead of my normal early morning workout, this was midday as we just got home from a few days up north; and instead of "longer" intervals, this was a shorter/faster workout because I'm trying to mix things up a bit more than usual. (And there's a 1 mile race coming up in a month, and I'd like to see if I can still go sub-5.)

So I did 4x800 with 2 mins rest, followed by 4x400 with 90 sec rest, which was the same workout from 13 months ago.

I was aware of my splits from last time, so I was happy when I was 4 sec faster with my first 800, and then 3 sec faster with my second. I was feeling good out there! Here's how the workout started:

800s:
1:19 + 1:21 = 2:41.2
1:19 + 1:19 = 2:38.5
1:19 + 1:17 = 2:37.4
1:18 + 1:17 = 2:35.5

2:38.15 / 800 ave

After 2 more minutes of rest, I jumped into the 400s. My first was SLOWER than last year by 1 second, but then the rest were basically what I did last year or slightly faster. But these felt harder than the 800s.

400s:
1:16.3
1:14.9
1:14.5
1:14.0

1:14.93 / 400 ave

At first, I was super stoked to be a BIT faster than last year (just over 2 sec faster / 800 and then less than 0.1 sec slower / 400), but then I realized I didn't run a 1 mile race last year, so I can't be thinking "I'm faster than last year on the track, so therefore sub-5 is locked up!" NOPE! Far from it! My flat-out speed has been waning over the years, so I was most likely slower than 5:00 mile pace last year, so maybe I'm eeking down closer to 5-flat pace right now. There's more work to do!!

Pace map. Apparently, I start laps a bit slower (not surprising),
and then I'm also a bit slow around the final turn (also not surprising).


Pace graph: 4x800 with 2:00 rest, then 4x400 with 90 sec rest. Simple workout!


Nothing surprising in the heart rate chart.

I felt "validated" to see my HR not coming back down as far between the 400s as it did in the 800s. Having 30 sec LESS rest in the 400s hurts a lot more, and you can see that in my recovery HR.