Mile Repeats at the Track

I'm working my way back to normal speed work. I ran the TC 10 Mile in early October, and then took 3 weeks off from hard running. Then I ran some 2x2 mile intervals at the end of October, just over a week before the USATF MN CC Championship 8K race. Then I had another week off from hard running. And that brings us to the end of last week... it was time to push myself again!

I hit the track for a simple 3x1600 with 3:00 walking rest between. It was dark when I got there, and the sky was just starting to light up:

As common with this time of the year, I had no real goals - just to run hard. (Well, I was also trying to descend my times, but that's always a given.) My first one felt uneventful at 5:38. My second was a bit faster at 5:33 (with a nice 6 sec drop in time from my first 800 to my last 800), and I was appropriately hashed. So when I was starting my 3rd interval, I was hoping to keep my 800s under 2:45 so I could break 5:30. Here's what I ran:

2:50 + 2:47 = 5:38.1
2:49 + 2:43 = 5:33.5
2:46 + 2:39 = 5:26.6

The final 800s were 0:03, 0:06, and 0:07 faster than the opening 800s, and that felt good!

Sweaty selfie at 35 degrees after my final interval,
with the "vein of approval" out in my forehead.


Lots of laps, with 800 splits.


Normal pace chart, but a HR chart that is clearly off.
(I was NOT maxxing out with my HR in the 160s!)

Here's an interesting metric that I never look at: I noticed that my "running power" spiked at the start of each interval, and then along the homestretch which was into the wind. I had to look into how my Garmin figures power data, and it makes sense. So note the 5 tiny spikes in each interval (starting, and then into the wind on the homestretch 4 times):

I don't know how to "use" power data while running, so it's just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And then on the cool-down home, I tripped and busted open my pinky fingernail. Oops. That was 3 days ago, and it's all healing fine. My pinky swelled up pretty badly that day, and my palm is still sore, but it could have been a lot worse!