Deja Vu? Or the Case of the Recurring Repeats
Guess what, boys and girls? Its Howdy D 400 meter repeat time. Again. I swear, it feels like we just did these. Huh. Anyway, this time I parked at RunTex and did the normal warmup at around a 9:30 pace. I started out running with Alex, who’s normally very strict about not going too fast, but he kept accelerating and I eventually pulled back and ran in more slowly. By the end of it my HR was in the mid 150s.
We had a large group today. It seemed even larger at first because another coach was using the track, but they moved off to the football field shortly after we showed up. Our drills ended with the same 50 meters fast/50 slow lap that we did last week, which was a pretty nice way to get ready for the 400s.
Just like last time, our goal was 1:45 with a 60 second active recovery. This time, however, we were told to try to nail it as best we could, neither faster nor slower, while working on keeping as close to perfect form as we could. It turns out that if I concentrate on my form, its harder to keep my speed as slow as the 7:02 goal, at least on this workout. Still, it was another muggy day, and I alternated between feeling fast-and-constrained and slow-and-working-hard. Our times, however, were really pretty darn good:
1:45 - 1:46 - 1:45 - 1:44 - 1:43 - 1:46 - 1:45 - 1:44 - 1:44 - 1:45 - 1:44 - 1:37
Because I’d parked over by RunTex and needed to do my cooldown run before I could get to work, I cut out after 12 laps instead of today’s maximum of 15. On the last one I stuck with the 7:00 pace for the first 300 meters, then kicked it into high gear finishing the last 100 meters at somewhere close to a 5:00 pace! It felt pretty good too, and I wrapped it up thinking that I could have held that pace for another 100 meters - maybe next time.
Anyway, I did my cooldown run at around a 9:45 pace. My heart rate was pretty far up there, averaging around 162 during the 1.6 miles back to my car, but once I got there it dropped back down into the 130s fast enough. These short intervals are certainly a workout!
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Jun 3rd 2005
11:39 AM
wow…those are super consistant times. great work, richard! that’s like a mini yasso. i’d say, based on those times, you could pull off a 3:30 marathon without too much difficulty.
Jun 3rd 2005
2:16 PM
Dead on, as usual, Richard. And a 5:00 sprint at the end is damn impressive. Not sure I’d be sprinting anywhere after 12 intervals.
Jun 3rd 2005
3:22 PM
Actually, McMillan says that for a 3:30 I should be doing 1:35-1:40 for 400M repeats, but it doesn’t have any information about quantity or rest. With a one minute rest, I think I could do 20 400s at this pace (on most days). The last five would be difficult, but I could hang on and do ‘em. I’d like to try picking them up to a faster speed in a month or two - still, NYC’s not until 11/6…