Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Track Session #4: cruise intervals

It's getting a bit nippy out, these mornings! The fun thing about track work this time of year (i.e., right before going off DST), is that it is DARK when you get up, even if you're getting up at 6:15. I was kind of worried the track would have snow on it, but with the amount of insolation it gets, I shouldn't have.

Speaking of snow; that 5K last weekend? Canceled. Newton Public Safety had enough to do Sunday morning besides make sure a race course was clear. You wouldn't think 3" of snow would do so much damage, but this snow was about as wet and heavy as it gets. A lot of trees and branches came down!

That means a different race and a different goal. Now I'm planning on doing the Canton Fall Classic 10k, which was postponed from last weekend to this weekend.

I never blogged about last week's intervals. They went poorly. It's funny how how you feel about a particular workout is entirely determined by how you measure against the goal you set yourself, even when the goal is completely arbitrary (and in this case, not particularly smart). Last week's goal was 3x mile intervals @ 5:20 pace, with 70s recovery. This was a little bit ambitious, because my best 5k pace is 5:34s. I ran 5:20, 5:35, and a demoralized 5:46. 

Not wanting to repeat that mistake, I planned on doing 4x2K intervals @ 5:50 pace (my 10k pr is 6:04 pace), with up to 150s rest. It turns out that was WAY too much rest; I only used 90s of my first rest period and limited the next two rest periods to the 90s as well. 70s might have been manageable.

Times: 7:12, 7:15, 7:08, 6:58 (7:15 = 5:50 mile pace).

I felt fresh and strong throughout, with enough vim to kick the last quarter home in 77s. So it went...well. But maybe the bar was just too low this time. The next race will help me figure out where I stand.

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