Two Perfectly Descending Interval Workouts

I don't know if I've ever been on the track in February before. I noted that I checked out the track 2 weeks ago hoping to to run intervals that Friday, but then it snowed that very evening to put a stop to that. So for my speed workout 10 days ago, I hit the treadmill in the basement for a 3x1 mile workout.

I warmed-up for 1.2 miles, walked for 0.2 miles, and then started running hard. (Since my treadmill only goes to tenths instead of hundredths AND speeds up slowly, I actually cranked it up shortly after 0.1 mile of walking so that I'd be at speed when the next tenth ticked over.) And I walked 0.2 between the intervals for about 2:15 of walking rest.

Here's what I ran (and what I can remember from my treadmill speed):

2:52 + 2:48 = 5:40.8
(10.5 mph for 0.4 miles, 10.7 mph for the last 0.3 miles or so)

2:49 + 2:46 = 5:36.5
(10.6 mph to 10.9 mph)

2:48 + 2:42 = 5:30.9
(10.7 mph to 11.1 mph)

Here's what my screen looked like shortly after ending my efforts while walking for a few mins:

Note the 3 "peaks" of speed for the intervals, with the final peak going
up an extra bar for 2 columns at the end when I was over 11 mph.

That wasn't some of my best speed, but it was a good, simple, harder effort on the treadmill.

---

We had some nice weather earlier this past week, so I thought the track might be ready for me this past Friday. So I checked it out at the end of my Wednesday run:

And notice I picked it up on the home stretch to make sure it wasn't slick under fast feet.

There was a little ice around the first corner from melting snow like I slipped on in early December, but it wasn't bad - it forced me to watch my footing for a few strides each lap, and it pushed me out to lane 2 for just a bit. But it was good enough for intervals, so this past Friday, I hit the track for 4x (800 then 400) with 2 minutes rest between everything. That's a nice simple workout I've done a few times over the last 9 months.

I hit this workout PERFECTLY. My times weren't amazing, but I didn't sandbag at the start and held on for a good workout. Here were my splits for this 800s and 400s:

1:19.8 + 1:19.2 = 2:39.0
1:14.7
1:19.0 + 1:18.5 = 2:37.5
1:14.6
1:18.8 + 1:17.2 = 2:36.0
1:13.2
1:18.3 + 1:15.8 = 2:34.1
1:13.1

LOOK AT THAT DESCEND!! The 400s kept dropping each time, and my 800s dropped by about 1.5 sec each time too! I really didn't know what the final 400 of the last 800 was going to be - I was hurting, and it could have been slow because of that or fast because I wanted to get it over with (turns out it was fast).

Lappy lappy.
(The green laps on the outside were warm-up and cool-down.)


Looks about right.

Since I like to compare numbers, here's all 4 times I did this workout - first column from May 2023, second from Sept 2023, third from Nov 2023, and the final from last week:

May / Sept / Nov / Feb

2:42 / 2:41 / 2:41 / 2:39
1:13 / 1:14 / 1:14 / 1:14
2:40 / 2:37 / 2:38 / 2:37
1:14 / 1:13 / 1:15 / 1:14
2:37 / 2:34 / 2:37 / 2:36
1:13 / 1:14 / 1:13 / 1:13
2:35 / 2:32 / 2:36 / 2:34
1:13 / 1:12 / 1:13 / 1:13

I was fastest overall in Sept (not shocking news). Last week was my fastest start, and therefore tied as my "tightest spread" from start to finish of my 800s (November also had a 5 sec spread from slowest to fastest, but every 800 was faster last week). Again, my numbers weren't AMAZING (as looking at all 8 intervals, I was fastest [or tied for fastest] in just 3 of them), but it's also February and I felt like I gave my all and hit this workout really well.