Final Track Workout Before the 1 Mile

In mid-June, I did some 800s and 400s on the track, then some 200s 2 weeks later, then some 400s a week after that, and finally I did some more 200s this past Friday before next weekend's 1 mile road race. SO THAT WAS 4 ZIPPY TRACK WORKOUTS IN THE LAST 5 WEEKS! This final one wasn't meant to be SUPER hard, but more to just keep my legs fast going into the 1 mile race in a few days.

This last workout was 6x200 descending with 200 jogging rest between. Initally when I was given this workout (NINE years ago), I was told to do 33, 32, 31, 30, and then the last 2 ALL OUT. I knew I couldn't hit these times now (I couldn't hit them 9 years ago either!), but the idea was to get faster.

A damp morning track.


What 400s look like when you go HARD for 200 and EASY for 200.


Pooped after the 6th one. Where are my nipples?

I wasn't super happy with my times, but at least they went in the right direction:

0:35.6
0:35.1
0:34.5
0:33.4
0:33.4
0:32.9

34.15 average


200 meter jogging rests between were 1:05, 1:02, 1:13 (got a drink), 1:02, 1:03, and 1:04

Pace and heart rate. (My heart rate HAD to have been registering wrong for the first one.)


Most of my interval work was 4:30 down to sub-4:00 pace.
(Note I ended at 3:57 pace here.)


Foot strikes: around 190 when running fast, and around 165 when running easy.

I did the 800s/400s workout just over a year ago, but the other 3 workouts were workouts that Coach Jen gave me 4 years ago which got me down to a 4:54 mile at this same race that I'll be racing this upcoming weekend (although like I note in my race report, I swear it should have been more like 4:56). Here's how these workouts compared THIS YEAR vs FOUR YEARS AGO before that race:

• 800s/400s: over 2 sec faster in the 800s, just 0.1 sec slower in the 400s.

• 12x200: 0.7 sec faster than 4 years ago.

• 8x400: 0.5 sec faster than 4 years ago.

• 6x200: 0.75 sec slower than 4 years ago.

I tweeted about this final track workout after it was over, and I noted that I was feeling pretty good about my sub-5:00 chances until just after that final workout. Everything was trending in the right direction until that workout. I'm just telling myself to SUFFER HARD for the race next weekend and it MIGHT be do-able! We'll see!!!!!!

(p.s. My Garmin randomly pops up during runs with my "performance condition" letting me know if my pace and heart rate are telling it I'm getting in better or worse shape. It often pops up in the opening few miles of a long run saying "+2" or "+3" which is a good thing. After this track workout, I reset my Garmin and took off for home on a cool down run. The track workout had spiked my heart rate [OBVIOUSLY] but now I was running 8:00+ pace home. So my Garmin chimed in to say my performance condition was "-9!" Ha! That's the lowest negative I've seen it give me! Thanks for that.)