I Heart Intervals

Tuesday’s = intervals!!! I really look forward to Tuesday nights at the track. They have it all … indoors, soft running surface and flat. Most importantly, it’s fun to go fast. An added bonus tonight was that I broke out the new racing flats … Asics Piranha’s. It was my first time in flats. After warming up, I really didn’t notice them on my feet … other than feeling like I wasn’t wearing any shoes (4 oz.). Even Coach gave me props on the new kicks!

Alright, enough fashion discussion and on to the business at hand. Last night’s workout called for 8x600s with a 200m recovery in between (similar to last week’s 12x400s in that the distance was consistent). The key was to find a rhythm quickly and maintain it. How did it go?

I’m pleased with these results for a few reasons. First, other than a slip up on the 7^th interval, I negative split from the 1^st to 8^th, which indicates endurance, patience and the ability to regulate reserves (hopefully I’ll figure out how to do the same during tempos). Contrast last night’s effort with my first interval session with the team two weeks ago, where I ran the 600s portion at 2:22, 2:26, 2:26 and 2:33 which is a positive split (it should not be called a positive split, because it’s not a good thing). Second, my time improved between 5-12 seconds per 600. Some of that quickness I will attribute to the racing flats, but most of it is … well, me. I’m getting better. Third, I dropped a 2:15 on the final interval and actually came in second among our 6-7 person subgroup … it required a kick on the last 50 meters, but I got it done. In hindsight, I wish I would have pushed earlier because it would have been great to hit a sub 6:00 pace for the 8^th interval. Oh well, next week.

My confidence and comfort are definitely improving on the track. At one point I seriously considered pacing the group on one of the intervals. One brave soldier usually “breaks the wind” and keeps pace for us all night, but mercifully a couple of the women stepped up and took the reigns. When they did the results were an accelerated pace … to wit, change from the 3^rd to 4^th interval and the 8^th interval.

Next week, I’ll take my turn in front … kind of amazing considering less than 2 weeks ago that statement would have been followed by hysterical laughter. Not now. Assuming I’m feeling good and loose, I’ll try to help pace the group next week for an interval or two. Now if I could figure out tempos without killing myself, then I might become decent one day.