Circles

Last night was my first ever track workout (which looked nothing like the picture to the left), unless you count those three weeks my Junior year of high school where I decided I wanted to run track (not a successful venture). There is a track about half a mile from our place, so I decided I would run there to warm up, do some sort of track workout (I still needed to look for one on the internet), then run home for my cool-down. But the weather had been quite temperamental all day (rain for 5 minutes, blazing hot, storm w/ lightening, lather, rinse, repeat), so I decided I would drive the 45 seconds to the track instead.

I scoured the internet for a good track workout for someone who has no idea what they are doing. I found several, but I would have had to actually write down the workout and take that with me - I needed something I could remember quite easily. I found Yasso's 800's. Here is a description, ganked from an article on Runner's World:

The goal is to be able to run 10 800s, each in a minute-and-second time that matches your expected hour-and-minute marathon time. So, if you want to run a marathon in 4 hours and 30 minutes, you start with four or five 800-meter repeats and gradually work up to 10, running each in 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

Upon more research, I discovered that there are lots of folks who think this workout is overrated, a crock, etc...But it was a simple workout, so it is what I went with.

I did an warm-up mile in about 10:15. It was around 6:45 in the evening when I went, and not quite as cool as I had hoped it would be. But I discovered that if I was running, it seemed cooler for some reason. If I stopped moving, the blanket of humidity would envelope me.

I have this dream that I want to finish a marathon somewhere in the 4:30 range (hahahaha). Based on my half-marathon time, I would finish a full in the 5:00 area. But I hope to be a better and smarter runner for the full than I was for the half. I actually was on pace to finish the half in about 2:10ish, but I slowed down significantly for the last two miles of the half (my time was 2:24:49). SO, I was going to try to do the 800's in the 4:30-4:45 range. I was pleasantly surprised to finish my first 800 in 4:32! I did sprint (in the loosest sense of the word) the last 15 seconds of it, but I did it. And I felt like a freakin' superstar when I was done! I jogged a lap to recover, and then attempted another 800. 4:39. I jogged another lap to recover. For my last 800 I could tell that I lost steam, and it turned into a 400 (with a time of 2:10). I jogged a few more laps to cool down and then headed home.

About an hour later I could feel that workout. I really haven't been sore from running since the half, so it was almost a good feeling. All in all, I enjoyed Yasso's 800's. I don't know that it is a marathon finish time indicator, but it was actually fun, and I felt like a total stud/"real" runner when I was done. I also slept like a champ last night, which was a nice change of pace from my usual sleep habits.