1600 Repeats

The first track work out of the year seems like a good time to start this training blog.  I'll try to keep it posted with some of my more serious workouts, especially when I start my ramp up for Chicago in October.

4/7
Goals:
2 mile warm up/cool down
4x1600 @ 5:44  3 min rest

Actual:
Tropical Park
80 degrees, slight wind coming across the track.
1.5 mile warm up / cool down
4x1600 @ 5:52, 5:53, 5:53, 5:41  - 3 min rests

Total: 5.5 miles.

So I may have bitten off more than I could chew for a first track work out of the year.  My times were a bit slow but that was partly due to what I was working out as splits...  I planned to do this workout at goal 10k pace - which realistically should be about 36:26 (5:52/mile), but I'd love to go sub 36 (5:48/mile).  Doesn't seem like a big difference, but it is...  So I split the difference for the workout and planned 5:50 miles, and worked out the splits until I realized 1600 is a bit short, so I needed to be running 5:44 1600's to be on pace.  Unfortunately I remembered and targeted the wrong splits during the first interval, and then just wanted to keep the pace even...

I recovered well between intervals, but had trouble keeping intensity up after the first 800.  For the first 3 I went through the half 5 seconds fast and ended 2 seconds slower than target - a 7 second fade... not good for 1600 intervals.  Called off the cool down a little early because the stomach was feeling off and no bathrooms at the track...  Still, not going to be too mad about the workout considering I was dodging walkers and little kids on the track and it was my first speed work of the year, and first 1600 intervals in over a year...  It's a slow road back, but I've started!

In retrospect a better workout would have been 1000m intervals at 10k pace or slightly faster.  The race is just a week away so the goal was more learning the pace than strength training.  I think for the race I'll work out the 1k splits and run on those rather than mile splits.  It'll be my first 10k in 8 years so I'm pumped to see what I can do!