Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Very Special Date

......with the track.  Duh!  As I have mentioned before, I loooooved track back in the day.  I decided to break down and find a track to do my speedwork on for my workout Monday.  I've done some searching in the past, and everything within running distance is locked up tight.  I finally got the head's up from Joseph that there was a 4 lane track near-ish to where I lived.  Heck ya!  The funny thing is, I used to run by this track everyday when I first started running (it was on my regular running route) and always thought it was locked up tight.  Nada.

I had 5 miles to do with a one mile warm up and 8 x 400, with recovery jogs of 400 m. in between.  My goal pace for the 400's were 1:42-1:48 (6:48-7:12).  The weather was GORGEOUS.  We're talking low 60's, barely any humidity, crazy overcast, and a slight breeze.  This would've been perfect track meet weather back in the day. ;)  [btw, just went to insert a pic from high school track here for nostalgia sake and realized that facebook deleted the album of random HS pics.  A-holes. :(]

I did a nice warm up mile on the track, and quickly remembered why I hated running distance in track.  You want me to run how many laps?!?!?!  Haha, ok not quite that bad, but I definitely preferred to run 1/4 of the track or 1/2 of the track vs. 4 laps.  ;)  After the warm up I stretched really well and then got ready for some speed!

I started out a bit too fast on the first repeat, but didn't fade too much.  After the first couple of 400's, I felt the pace pretty easily and stopped looking at the pace on my Garmin altogether.  It's so much easier to get into a groove pace-wise when you're going fast.  After the 4th 400 I took a quick water break for a sip.  On #5 there was a guy who started 150-175 m. ahead of me, that I decided to chase down.  Heh, competitive little B.  The last lap I ran a really hard final 150 to see how fast I could get it done in.

I finished the 5 miles in 42:24 for a pace of 8:29.  My avg. pace for 400 was 1:40.  Maybe I'll move my goal pace up a little bit next time I do these. ;)


Recovery1 Mi9:379:379:37
Interval0.25 Mi1:3911:166:36
Recovery0.25 Mi2:2013:369:20
Interval0.25 Mi1:4215:186:48
Recovery0.25 Mi2:2517:439:40
Interval0.25 Mi1:4119:246:44
Recovery0.25 Mi2:2921:539:56
Interval0.25 Mi1:4823:417:12
Recovery0.25 Mi2:2626:079:44
Interval0.25 Mi1:3727:446:28
Recovery0.25 Mi2:2130:059:24
Interval0.25 Mi1:3931:446:36
Recovery0.25 Mi2:2834:129:52
Interval0.25 Mi1:4135:536:44
Recovery0.25 Mi2:3338:2610:12
Interval0.25 Mi1:3339:596:12
Recovery0.25 Mi2:2542:249:40

I really wanted to take some sweet pictures of my new love, but there were quite a few people walking/jogging/rollerblading w/their dogs (wtf?), so I felt silly.  Good thing I see there being many many more dates to come!

The best part of the track is that it's totally bike-able distance from my apartment, just not tonight as I a Mexican food date with one of my best guy friends from college.  I think I'm in looooooooooove.*

*With the track, for clarification purposes. ;)

8 comments:

Trying To Heal said...

so jealous of the track usage. i wish i had one...or you here to entertain me on one. actually, you'd just blow me away :) but i'd totally let you...

miss you! sorry i'm so behind on your posts; lets chat soon! <3

J said...

great job on the track workout! I love that it is nice weather now to get out there and run!

Julie said...

Hi Jeri,
Way to be a rock star and hit the track! Did you run distance in high school track? I was a sprinter and hated running distance...funny how things change:) I used to run 400s in high school and my best time was like 59 seconds. I am pretty darn sure that there is no way in hell that I could ever pull that off now:) Keep up the awesome work Jeri! You will be PRing before you know it!

Anonymous said...

Great workout Jeri! I'm so impressed by your speed workouts you are doing post marathon! Very impressive.
I'm excited to see how you shatter your 5k PRs this summer :)

Madison said...

Glad you were able to find a near-ish track. I've always thought it was strange to lock up a track. I mean, what do they think people are going to do on the track...exercise too much or have too much fun running? I realize it's a safety and property issue but still, I think it keeps more good people out who are just looking for a track to run than the bad people.

Jamie said...

Awesome job on the track workout! You rock!

X-Country2 said...

Great job on a great date with your lovah. :o)

And for the record, I've never had an issue with hopping a fence to get into a locked track. Especially if it's a public school. Those are my tax dollars, so I feel like it's at least a little part mine.

Ed said...

Looks like a tough but awesome workout! I know how good it feels to run on a nice track. My apartment building borders a very richie richesque type town. They put a lot of money into the local high school and its athletic department, which = awesome track, which = easy on the knees, which = Happy Ed. Thanks for the post!