12x200 on the Track

I hit the track for something gross late last week: 12x200. The Brian Kraft 5K was 2.5 weeks before that, and I'd done some non-track 800s and 400s up north the week before the 200s. So time for something zippy.

I got to the track early as the sky was getting bright:

You can barely see my waterbottle placed at the line that I'd sip from every two 200s.


Pic for the "track coach" I talked to who said she'd
never heard of a waterfall mile start line on a track.

I was ready for these to hurt because they were just going to have 0:45 rest between each of them. Ouch. I did this workout last year with a 0:33.675 ave: starting with a 0:35, dropping below that average for a while, and then finishing with most of the last half being slightly slower than that average. I was aware of all of that when starting it last week, and I was hoping to beat my times from last year.

I didn't start from a dead stop, but I walked up the line and took off for each one (but FAR from a full flying start). I started with another "slower" 0:35, and then brought them down like last year. I didn't bring them down QUITE as fast as last year, but I also didn't slow up AS MUCH as last year near the end. Here's what I ran:

35.9
34.3
33.6
33.5
33.2
32.3
33.1
33.4
33.4
33.1
32.9
33.3

33.50/200, or just 0:00.175 faster than last year

Honestly, I was a LITTLE bummed. I was hoping to take more off my times from last year.

But look at that perfect descend in the first half! I was aware I was doing that after a few, but then when I went from 33.1 to 32.3 in #5 to #6, I knew I couldn't keep up that descend for #7 (then I was back in the 33s for 5 out of the remaining 6).

My pace graph looks how you'd expect, and my HR kept rising
(but I don't fully trust my Garmin HR graphs).

I've been enjoying these shorter track workouts lately! They are a lot different than the "normal" 3x1600 that I'm used to.