Hitting the Track: 3rd Time in 4 Weeks!

... that's a lot of track work for December!

I did some 800s and 400s 3 weeks ago. Then I took a week off from the speed work. Last week, I did some mile repeats on the track. And yesterday I hit the track for 4x800 with 2 mins rest, followed by 4x400 with 90 sec rest. I think this was only the 2nd time doing this after doing it on a paved trail (not on the track) while up north early this past summer. THAT workout was one of my best speed workouts ever as I started fast and was able to keep it up. This workout, however, was NOT as great.

I just had to take advantage of a 39 degree morning between 2 days in the upper 40s! But there still was a bit of slick frost on the first turn of the track, which was a bit surprising - I figured with those temps, it'd be clear. Oh well.

When I had the great version of this workout up north in June, I opened with a 2:35 800 (1:18 + 1:17). So I was a little bummed to see 1:21 on my watch for the first 400 of my opening 800 yesterday. But I kept the effort up even if my times weren't going to be as good. In the end, my times were within about 2 secs for both my 800s and 400s, so I felt alright - I was appropriately working!

Here were my splits for 4x800 with 2 mins rest, then 4x400 with 90 sec rest:

1:21 + 1:19 = 2:41.5
1:20 + 1:20 = 2:41.1
1:20 + 1:18 = 2:39.3
1:19 + 1:19 = 2:39.3

1:15.9
1:16.1
1:15.0
1:14.5

800 ave: 2:40.30
400 ave: 1:15.38

In June, those averages were 2:34.88 (5.5 sec faster) and 1:13.5 (1.9 sec faster). That's substantial! I didn't have that in me yesterday (and maybe part of the issue was more clothes, breathing colder/drier air, and the difference of a curved track vs straght/flat path), but I still pushed through the workout and made it a good one.

A bunch of fast laps.