It’s track repeat Tuesday!
I signed up for this track clinic on a whim when a friend recommended it to me, and it’s been incredible. I go and push hard, once a week, every week. I’m halfway through the clinic and not sure what I’ll do when it ends. I’m afraid of losing all the ground because I won’t have the scheduled time and group to keep me motivated.
If it hadn’t been scheduled, there’s probably no way I would have run this morning.
But it was. And I knew I’d feel better if I went. And I knew I’d feel disappointed if I didn’t. And I couldn’t procrastinate.
So before the coffee had even hit my system, I was chasing other women as fast as I could around an indoor track.
The Workout: We did a warm up, drills, 400 meters, 800 meters, 800 meters, 400 meters.
Improvements: I’m in the second group (the slow group) but we’re picking up the pace from week to week. This week I ran the repeats in 1:49, 4:10, 3:57 and 1:48. I know we’ve done some 400s over 2 minutes last week.
Pacing: I need to work on exerting a steady effort throughout my repeats. I finished the first two repeats in the middle and toward the back of the pack, but sprinted towards the front towards the end of the last lap on the first 800 meter repeat. I felt kind of rude passing people on the last straight stretch; it shows how poor my pacing is, and while it’s nice to finish strong, it’s a little ridiculous also. I sincerely hope the other women understood I was just trying to salvage getting something out of the repeat I botched in the middle.
After finishing faster than I started on the 3rd repeat, I tried harder to exert a faster effort from the beginning for the last two repeats. I pushed harder and managed to stay in the front both times for the entire duration of the repeat. I feel like that meant I was going a more steady pace than if I’d been in the back and then passed everyone on lap 3, which is the only reason I focus on placement – it can be a good gauge of how steady you’re going.
Saving it for the end: I think I’m subconsciously afraid of crashing on these repeats. I’ve noticed that not only am I faster towards the end of repeats, I also tend to be towards the front of the pack on the later repeats in the workout, never in the beginning repeats. Not once in any of the 4 weeks have I been towards the front on repeat #1 or #2. I’m always towards the front on the last repeats. What does that say? Says that someone’s saving the energy for later… and then when it’s finally clear that we’re almost done, I’m like “oops! here it is!”
That said, my 400 meter times were only 1 second apart this week, which seems consistent. The first 800 meter was definitely slow at 4:10 vs. 3:57.
Wait… am I arguing about seconds, here?
What’s happened to me?
DO I SOUND LIKE A RUNNER?!?!
Anyway – I think the feeling I had between the repeats is more important, and I definitely had an inconsistent feel with the effort I put forward on that first 800 meter repeat, and a slower time, and I’m excited that I did the next 800 at a more consistent feel and with a better time.
Next week is February break and there’s no track clinic… we’re supposed to do 4 x 400 on our own. Our coach said that missing a week can set you back two weeks because of the way repeats build on each other, and that 4 x 400 is always a great workout to do on your own because it’s manageable and enough not to lose ground.
I might just be loss averse enough to do it.