Thursday, December 4, 2008

Round and Round

Week one of track workouts….

It was not until we began the workout last night that I realized it has been 2 years since I (tortured myself) incorporated this in my training. Scott and I arrived to a dark track at a local Middle School near our home to meet Susan and her husband Craig for the fun. After a warm up Craig got us busy with the plan.

1200 – Warm Up
400 x 4 with a 100 recovery between each set
800 x 2 with a 200 recovery between each set
400 x 4 with a 100 recovery between each set
1200 – Cool Down

I must say that on the second 800 my legs were really feeling the push. And on the last 400 I knew I had given all I had to this first track session. No times were recorded. Watch was too cold to function properly and it was too dark to see anyway. I will figure out something before next week so that I have something to compare each week by. We are doing a pyramid plan next week…should be interesting!
BTW... thank you all for your awesome comments about the Beach to Battleship Iron Triathlon. This is one excited girl and I can not wait to share in the adventure.

Robin

16 comments:

Marcy said...

Did you tiptoe the recoveries? Cause that's what I do HAHAHHAA

ShirleyPerly said...

Yikes, it's been 3 years for me since I've done any. Good for you getting out there in the dark and too-cold-for-the-watch-to-work weather!!

zanne said...

oh girl - i LOVED track workouts! There is something a little zen about them ... its' like meditation - just stay between the white lines and watch the ground move beneath you and breathe.

Marlene said...

I'm tired just looking at that track workout!

I Run for Fun said...

That sounds brutal. I am useless with any kind of repetitions.

Journey to a Centum said...

With four or more runners it's sometimes a nice break to run laps together in a line. The pace is set by the slowest persons easy pace and then the fun begins. The last person in line sprints to the front of the line. When they make the front they yell go and the next person who is last in line sprints to the front. It's a great way to get intervals in and you get lots of motivation from the other runners. Depending on the number of people we would generally run 8 laps doing this during our training.

The training method goes by a number of names. We call it the Burma Road but that's from when I did it in football practice many years ago.

We also do "ladders" similar to the plan Craig had you run. The difference is that we do sets.

warmup
800 x 1 400 recovery
400 x 1 200 recovery
200 x 1 100 recovery
Repeat 4 times

With so many long distance runners in our group we've slacked off from these speed workouts. We still meet at the track on Thurday nights but we head out on the trails instead of staying on the track. I suppose we really should start doing some of these speed workouts again.

Keep up the good work! You will see improvement in your running speeds if you keep this up.

BeachRunner said...

Too dark. Cold. No times. Pffft. WIMP!!!

;)

Felice Devine said...

Good for you for getting out there is the dark/cold. I'm too wimpy.

How are your legs feeling today?

Unknown said...

I didn't think you ultra-types did track workouts. Nice job with the pyramid intervals.

Judi said...

track work is hard! good for you going out and doing it.

Shannon said...

This must be in my future, I just had someone last night tell me, "Shannon, you should start some track workouts." When I need the training tips, I know who to look too. :)

I'm sooo excited your doing B2B.

David said...

Track work is like hill repeats: total suckage. But I guess they do work. Nice workout!

Kevin said...

Sounds like fun. One of these days I will try out track workouts

Wes said...

I used to cry when coach gave me X minutes at this pace then X minutes recovery. LOL... That's one of the things I love about my Garmin 205 though. I can set all that stuff up in there. No track required, just flat :-)

jen said...

Wow, nice workout. Those recoveries are pretty short! Hard core.

Stuart said...

It's gonna hurt but it's so worth it!

Use you Garmin to track them; data orgasm!