8x1000 with 400 recovery

Before I head into another weekend of long runs, I was out this morning for one last stressor workout. Originally, I had slated a 4 x 8 minutes with 2 minute recovery over the course of 12 miles, but it would have been a total drag to do by myself.

Nathan tossed over in an email that he was doing 8x1000 with a 400 meter recovery at Bradley Middle School track on Friday.

It didn't take me to long to switch up workouts i.e. doing 4x8min alone verses 8x1000 and being pulled along.

This call was pretty easy.

After few more email exchanges we were all set.

Our warm up would start at 6:30 AM which would include a couple of miles.

Then, we move on to the track for the 8x1000. My hands were very cold at the start, but between the sun coming up and the intervals, my hands started to warm up.

I have run track workouts many times and with others, but this would be the first time for a track workout with Nathan. I was interested to see how he handled it.

This is what I found it out.

Nathan likes to go out pretty hard the first 100 meters before settling into the interval. I am little different. I tend to start slow and build over the course of the interval. So needless to say, Nathan was gapping me by 5 yards or so on the initial lap. He tends to run intervals with even splits where as I start slow but try to finish progressively faster.

He ended up leading the initial intervals, and I took my turn leading the some of the middle intervals.

Around intervals 5 and 6, I was starting to struggle somewhat. My arms and legs seemed to want to tie up. But during intervals, 7 and 8, I kept my focus on staying relaxed, watching my form, and controlling my breathing. This really helped and I felt much better which showed when my intervals picked up a little.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with this workout. There was good effort and speed coming out of my body and I hit my mileage goal of 12 for the day.

Up next Tuesday, I will be doing 3 x 3mi with 2x400 between each one. As for a location, I like Mallard Creek Greenway for this one. There is nice flat ¼ mile section and I can do a little out and back for the 3 mi. tempos.

 

Tales from the Cool Down Runner