Track Tuesday: Mile Repeats

Track Tuesday shows it's face again!

I prepared myself for this one on Monday.  I skipped all running and walking workouts and only went to spin to keep my legs somewhat fresh.  I have less than 2 weeks until school starts again and I've been working on getting my sleep schedule back.  I was actually up by 6:30 and out the door around 7:30 following multiple cups of coffee.

I have been researching track workouts for my half marathon goal pace and found this awesome article: Workout of the Week: Mile Repeats. The article touches on mile repeat workouts for 5K, 10K, half and marathon efforts which I LOVE since I often am trying to do my track workouts faster than half marathon pace.

 I choose to do 5-8 mile repeats at 10K pace.

Following a 3 mile warm-up and a stop at the grossest port-a-potty I've ever seen, I started my first repeat with the goal of 7:00 miles.

The first mile flew past with a perfect split of 7:00.  I walked a 200 m rest and then started my second repeat.  My Garmin was acting crazy beeping every 3 seconds with a "lap error" message on the screen.  I have no idea what that was about and I also couldn't see my pace, so I ran the second repeat by feel.  I ran a 6:34.

Apparently my body can go faster than my mind thinks it can.

With 2 miles down and hopefully 3-4 more, I wanted to up my pace but keep it conservative enough to finish my workout.  I changed my goal pace to around 6:50 and hoped for the best.  Mile 3 split: 6:49.  My legs were starting to feel the workout at this point.  Mile 4: 6:53, Mile 5: 6:50.  I could feel that I had one or two more repeats in me.  Mile 6 I really started to feel the fatigue in my quads with a split of 6:45.  I felt that I could maybe pull off one more and decided that was a good place to stop.  I didn't want to go for complete fatigue.  I still had to make it home.

A 3 mile cool down to make it back to my front door and 4x 8-10 strides to keep my legs awake.  I spent lots of time stretching and foam rolling before making my usual post-run smoothie.

There were fortunately no soccer boys this Track Tuesday, only maintenance men working on the field.  Which I didn't mind until until one of them did this:

On my last mile repeat. Of course. 


What is your workout today?

Are you a football fan?  Running around a football field is making me miss lazy Sundays watching any and all games.

My Inaugural Track Tuesday (soccer boys optional)

Welcome to my first every (and hopefully not only) Track Tuesday!

I made a fancy sign and everything. It better not be the last.

My last training cycle incorporated speed work into my daily runs.  I'm trying to change that routine and actually get out to run on the track.  Nothing beats knowing exactly where to stop and end without checking your Garmin.

Nothing like a black track in the middle of summer.  Holy heat!

I am definitely no track expert, so I put together some random intervals that looked good and off I went!

Pureflows and spandex shorts to make me feel faster.

I jogged to the track as part of my warm-up and then walked/jogged home as my cool down.

Here are my splits:

2 x 1200 (4:56, 5:03)

2 x 800 (3:10, 3:24)

2 x 400 (1:26, 1:34)

Average HR: 167 BPM

I ended up with 9 miles total between warm-up, track workout, and cool down.

Unfortunately I choose to do my track workout as soon as men's soccer practice was starting at the local high school.  They were at the age where they hadn't learned to discretely check someone out.  It was more blatant stares.  I guess it's a learned skill.

I stretched once I was done (you're welcome soccer boys) and headed home.  Next time I'm driving to the track.  My legs were spent.

The rest of my day involves going to the dog park, catching up on sleep (I slept horribly last night!), and eating.  Track sessions work up an appetite!

I also have to deal with this. Princess Butt and the Pea.

Peyton is living the dream.


Do you run at the track?

Give me a new track workout to try!

Do your animals love blankets and pillows as much as Peyton does?