Speed Work, Solo Style

While I wasn't exactly "alone" at the track last night, I arrived after the ladies were already into their workout, so didn't join them. So I was running solo on the track, something I haven't done since last fall or winter. Maybe one of the snow runs in the dark in December or January. Either way, I wanted to get in a total of ten miles. So, as I'm doing my warm-up I try to do the math as to how many 800's I should do, combined with an adequate warm-up and cool-down. Oh, and don't forget the recovery laps!

So what I came with was a 2 mile warm-up, 8 X 800 meter repeats with 400 meter recoveries, and a 2 mile cool-down. I completed the slow warm-up in 19:09, which I thought was slow, but still caused me to get out of breath and begin sweating profusely. What I was to figure out eventually is that the humidity was about 70%! I just couldn't cool off last night.

The 800 repeats went well with times of: 3:13 / 3:16 / 3:09 / 3:06 / 3:09 / 3:10 / 3:12 / and 3:01. I put everything I had left into that last one. I didn't want anything coming home with me. And I felt it during the two mile cool-down. I was ready to stop after the first mile but pushed through to get my mileage in.

I'm looking to hit the trails again tonight, probably locally, just to get some off-road miles in. Then an off day tomorrow with runs of 10 and 20? this weekend. Just have to wait and see how those days shape up.