A Rare Pyramid Workout at the Track

I think this was only my 4th time doing this workout, even though I first did this workout 10 years ago! I have a hard time with “pyramid” workouts as I don’t like changing speed so much, but I know if I HATE it that it must be GOOD for me. (And I’ve gotten better about doing pyramid swim workouts, so I’m coming around to the idea.)

Here are the 3 previous times I did this workout in 2015, 2019, and 2023. When I did this workout last week, I did 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800, and 400 meters, all with 2:00 rest between. (That was the same as the 2015 and 2023 workout, but in 2019 I did less rest “on the way up” and more rest “on the way down.”)

I took my splits each lap, and here’s what I ran:

1:19.0
1:20 + 1:20 = 2:41.0
1:20 + 1:23 + 1:30 = 4:04.9
1:20 + 1:22 + 1:20 + 1:19 = 5:23.5
1:19 + 1:22 + 1:18 = 4:02.0
1:17 + 1:18 = 1:36.0
1:13.7

My average lap speed shows that I sort of have one speed: my 4 of the 7 intervals (the 800, 1200, 1600, and 1200) were all within 1.1 secs/lap:

Ave lap speed:

1:19.0
1:20.5
1:21.6
1:20.9
1:20.7
1:18.0
1:13.7

In 2023 I was similar to the runner I am today, but in the 2 early versions of this workout, I was a much less confident (and less consistent) runner... BUT I was younger and maybe had better “top end” speed. So how did my splits compare this 4th time doing this workout?

- 3rd fastest opening 400 (1:19 now vs 2 times doing it in 1:18)
- 2nd fastest 800
- 2nd fastest 1200 (the 800 and 1200 were barely faster in 2023)
- 1st fastest 1600
- 2nd fastest 1200
- 2nd fastest 800 (again, the 1200 and 800 were barely faster in 2023)
- 2nd fastest 400 (“youngest Steve” in 2015 ran a 1:11)

Basically, I started a bit too slow this year (this was my only time doing it on a cold morning, so I KNOW that had something to do with it - it was in the mid-20s with a little head-wind on the backstretch), I was just BARELY slower in most splits than compared to 2023, ran my fastest 1600 as I’m better at “holding on to speed” over these last few years, but then I was faster than 2 years ago in my final 400 but not faster than 34-year-old Steve from 10 years ago when I busted out a really fast final lap.

Honestly, I would have loved to have been a bit faster than 2 years ago, but the start of this winter was a bit easier as I was nursing an injury, so I'm still working to get back to 2023 and 2024 speed (2024 speed might be gone forever - that was a good year!).

4 miles of fast running on the track.


The pace chart shows the workout well.