Ah, the track. Seems like I haven't been there in ages. Two and a half weeks, I think? Reason being some races were substituted for speed workouts the past few weeks. But it was nice to return, and in a different atmosphere to boot. School is not far away from starting, and adjacent to the high school track, football workouts were going on the athletic fields while the cheerleaders also rehearsed ("Be! Agressive! B! E! Aggressive! B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E!")
I had a root canal earlier in the afternoon, so with my mouth still numb from Novocain, I drooled a bit more than usual during the workout. It went well though. In fact, a little too well in the sense that it seemed too easy. I did some research the past few nights and asked for advice on the RunningAhead forums on how best to structure mile repeats for marathon training.
I came to the consensus that 5 X 1 mile repeats at 10k race pace with four minutes rest would be a good place to start. The caveat is that I really don't know what my 10k race pace is. I went ahead and guessed maybe around 6:30-6:40/mile, so tried for that.
First mile was well below that. Second one was also, and at that point I decided screw it. I'll just run them somewhat fast since it felt somewhat challenging yet comfortable. Even then it was too comfortable. I averaged 5:59/mile with the pace increasing or staying the same with each rep. I'm wondering if I should decrease the rest in between each rep next time, and/or increase the reps. It just didn't kick my butt the same way Yasso 800s did. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.
After the workout, ran a cooldown barefoot on the athletic fields. Felt good. Looking to do a medium run tomorrow at an easy pace.
Warm up: 1.0 mile @ 7:27/mile pace.
5 X 1 mile w/ four minutes rest: 6:08, 6:05, 5:57, 5:57, 5:48
Cool down: 1.4 miles @ 8:33/mile pace. Barefoot.
Upper to mid 70s, partly cloudy.
Saucony Kinvara, shorts.
