I dragged Brent to the track tonight. He’s slowly becoming one of my running BFFs. (Sorry Laura). Time is flying and I need to stay focused. I picked Brent up around 5:30 p.m. and we drove to Kerry Wood Nature Centre.
This week I started my Yasso 800s. Brent decided to stick with 400m repeats as he hasn’t been to the track since high school. My goal is to actually work up to 10x800m before I hit Tucson. Crossing my fingers every day that the snow will hold off until then. Not sure what I will be able to do for speed/interval training once there’s a blanket of snow on the ground.
Our warmup entailed few lunges, squats and a 3K easy run. It felt good to be outside after my rough day at work. Nice to have company too. A football practice was wrapping up when we reached the track. A junior high school triathlon team was also working on its running technique.
I programmed my Garmin to do the work for me. I knew two laps around the track equals 800m but I like to use my new watch to its full potential. Plus I like to keep track of my pace/time. I decided to rest/jog 2 hours between intervals. Now that I think about it I probably should have recovered equal the time I ran the 800m. For example, I ran 800m in 3:22 so I likely should have rested 3 minutes and 22 seconds. But I also read somewhere the shorter the rest time, the harder the workout.
Anyway I think it was fine for the first attempt my the 800 metres. Next week I will add two more intervals. It was challenging to say the least. I think Brent had fun too. We felt like high school track stars. We ran another 3K to cool down and wrap up our workout. Before leaving I noticed a guy running with a sled. He let me run it around the track. I took the weight off because I wasn’t sure how much I could do. Just the sled alone was 45 pounds. It was pretty light. No problem. Turns out they were from Pure Fitness. Fun stuff.
Do you run on the track? Has it made a difference in your races?