4x (800 then 400) on the Track

I think this was my 3rd time doing this workout. I've been focusing on "shorter" interval workouts this year (as opposed to my previous go-to workout which was 3x1600). I hit the track late last week on an 28 degree morning to do this workout with 2:00 rest between everything. My first 800 felt slow and I was wondering if the colder weather was starting to get to me. I shrugged it off and still ran the workout hard. In the end, I was decently happy with my times: 2:41, 1:14, 2:38, 1:15, 2:37, 1:13, 2:36, and 1:13. My 800s descended nicely, and my 400s were just brutal.

Here's what I ran compared to my inital splits in May: it shows if I was faster or slower than May when I did it in Sept, and then how last week compares to Sept:

1:22, 1:19 = 2:41.8 (0.9 sec faster in Sept, then 0.2 sec slower in Nov)
1:14.1 (1.2 sec slower in Sept, then 0.8 sec faster in Nov)
1:18, 1:19 = 2:38.5 (2.8 sec faster in Sept, then 1.1 sec slower in Nov)
1:15.1 (1.0 sec faster in Sept, then 1.2 sec slower in Nov)
1:17, 1:17 = 2:37.5 (3.1 sec faster in Sept, then 2.9 sec slower in Nov)
1:13.7 (0.7 sec slower in Sept, then 0.4 sec faster in Nov)
1:16, 1:15 = 2:36.0 (3.2 sec faster in Sept, then 3.6 sec slower in Nov)
1:13.5 (0.2 sec faster in Sept, then 0.7 sec slower in Nov)

So not surprisingly, I was slower in November when I don’t have a race on the horizon than I was in September. Times are quite similar to when I did it in May, and maybe that’s a little depressing: I’d like to think I’m still in better shape off the end of the season than I was while going into this past summer. But no biggie - still a great workout!

[Oh, and there were lots of tarps over the straightaways to protect the track from football cleats: maybe 40-50 meters of both straight sections. They were heavy and unevenly wrinkled, and they were a bit slick because they were frost covered. They may have slowed me down a little.]

Every rest was 2:00.

Back with notes from a long and oddly brutal weekend ride shortly!