A New Track Workout

Tonight, I just finished a really good track workout (outside!!!!) with the Cambridge Running Club.  After warming up for 2 miles, we ran 4X2000 (4 intervals of 2000 meters or 5 laps around an outdoor track).  Normally, the track workouts I’ve run mostly consist of distances between 800 - 1200 meters, with rare instances of running mile repeats.  Anything longer than this seems to take the fun out of the speed workouts because the intervals last more than 5 minutes.  And if your intervals are longer than 5 minutes, you might as well get out on the road or trails.

 

Our track coach came up with a way to solve this problem.  Instead of running the 2000s at half marathon pace, we broke up the 2000s and ran the first 800 at a 10k pace, the next 400 at our goal marathon pace, and the last 800 back at the 10k pace.  Even though it was still a 2000, we got a little bit a little bit of a break in between the 800s and also got some time in running at our goal marathon pace which is important.  I’ve always been fond (relatively speaking) of doing 800s during our track workouts, so maybe this is the reason I’m such a fan.  In between each interval, you can jog either a 400 or 800.  If you’re training for a marathon and have done track workouts in the past, I highly recommend this workout.  And for those of you that have run with me in the past, I kept the 800s between 3:00 and 3:10.  

 

Now that I think about it, the other part of this workout that made it more enjoyable was the fact that we actually ran the intervals at our 10k or half marathon paces (when prescribed).  You see, when I ran with the Washington Running Club, I feel as though we had a habit of racing every tempo run and track workout we did together.   I feel as though we always raced every interval, and I was spent after every workout with them.  I guess that’s the effort that was required I were to keep pace with the likes of Fast Will, Dan, Naoko and Lance.  They all should be looking to, and probably will, break 3 hours this year in Boston.

 

On another note, I’ve scheduled sometime next week to go out to the Respite Center to meet some of the people there.  I’ll be going around lunch time next Wednesday, and am looking forward to the stories I’ll have to report.  I can’t wait!