August 15th, Monday, 10:00p.m.
Determined to perform a track workout today, I headed for the Horse Track at seven in the evening with the temperature still about 82 degrees.. Now, the 800-meter cinder track is exactly half in the shade around that time of night. So, I decided I would just run on the shaded part, which is 400 meters. I had three goals tonight. The first was to stay in motion for a full hour and the second was to include some 400 meter repeats in the middle of that effort. I hoped to complete 6 x 400’s in decreasing time from about 10 minute pace to below 9 minute pace. The third was to complete all of this with no negative effect on my recently injured calf muscle. I’m very happy to report that I completed the entire workout as planned with my times much faster than I anticipated and no leg issues. It was not an all out effort. However, it was definitely the most intense workout since I returned to running in July: and it felt great!
The heat did not bother me, although I was totally soaked and dripping by the time I finished the one hour.
Here are the 400m times with equal rest;
2:07, 2:03, 1:58, 1:49, 1:51, 1:45
That means I started at 8:28 pace and ended at 7:00 pace. Much faster than expected, feeling relaxed, fluid and efficient!
Back home to chocolate milk, rolling and Olympic track. USA’s Murphy bronze in 1:42.9!!!
Stats –
I-Mad – 1
Am HR – 54BPM
Sleep – 8 hours
Weight- 153#
Workout – 1 HR in motion ₩ 6 × 400m as above