Small Successes

This morning was another good workout on the track.  My slowest 400 was faster than my goal pace, and my fastest 400 was the fastest I’ve done in the last two weeks.  My times:

1.  1:17  (400m)

2.  1:16  (400m)

3.  1:16  (400m)

4.  1:15  (400m)

5.  1:15  (400m)

6.  1:13  (400m)

7.  2:44  (800m)

I’m quite pleased.  In the middle of the first 400, I thought I was going at a slow pace, and I felt a little tired; coming through in 1:17 was a surprise.  Then, I just kept getting faster and faster, each time thinking in the middle of the piece that I was getting slower.  I felt pretty good during the rest laps, but I still kept them at a slower-than-walking pace; I’m sure I look pretty funny bumbling along like a 90-year-old man trying to jog.

Going into the 800, I was excited because I was pretty sure I could do a 2:44.  Coming through 200m, I was at 39s and needed to do a 41s.  I came through 400m in 1:19.  I was surprised how much I slowed down during the second lap, though.  I didn’t realize that I slowed down that much, and I actually thought that I could possibly hit 2:40.  This is no big deal, though; I hit my pace and I’m quite satisfied.  This was at a 5:28 mile pace, now “only” 16 seconds slower than my goal pace.

It took me 52 minutes to do the whole workout, so longer than last time and thus a little more rest on the rest laps.  But not bad, especially since I felt much better on these rest laps than last week’s.

It’s very good to have rowing and ballroom dancing to balance the real estate.  Right now real estate is tough, so it helps to have small victories or progress in the other two to keep my spirits up.  Sometimes it’s the other way, and I’m making progress in real estate and ballroom, but the rowing is not great.  Something I tell myself often when things are tough (quote from Rocky Balboa):

“It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep movin’ forward.  How much you can take, and KEEP MOVING FORWARD.  If you know what you’re worth, go out and get what you’re worth, but you gotta be willin’ to take the hit.”

2nd Track Workout in a Week

I posted some faster times on the track today for the same workout as last week: 6×400m, 1×800m.

1.  1:14  (400m)

2.  1:17  (400m)

3.  1:16  (400m)

4.  1:17  (400m)

5.  1:18  (400m)

6.  1:18  (400m)

7.  2:46  (800m)

All my 400’s were faster than my fastest time last week (1:19), and my rest was less (1 very slow lap instead of 1.5 very slow laps).  My goal was to do a 2:45 for the 800, and I went through 200m and 400m ahead of pace, but I slowed down in the 3rd 200m, picked it up a bit in the last 200m, but came through in just over 2:45 (rounded up to 2:46).

This past week was a very easy week for me because I pulled a muscle in my lower back last Friday (8 days ago), and so didn’t do any hard erg workouts and only lifted weights once (yesterday).  So while I had less rest time between intervals this week, I was far more rested than last week.

It took me about 48 minutes to do the whole workout, which is shorter than last week.  My rest time is still very long because I go veeeeery slowly on the rest lap, so over time my goal is to be able to do 75 second 400’s with the rest lap at a respectable pace, and not a I’m-on-mile-99-of-a-100-mile-road-race pace.

Almost invariably, on my 400’s I’d come through 200m around 36.5 seconds.  After a bunch of these, I thought “There are guys who can do 100m in 10 seconds, and I’m doing these in 18 seconds…”  Fortunately my goal is not to make the US Track and Field Team.

Overall, I’m pleased with this workout.  I’m now consistently faster than 80 seconds on my 400’s, and I ran 800m at about a 5:32 pace – “only” 20 seconds slower than my goal mile pace.

First Track Workout in 14 Years

One of my goals for 2009 is to break my personal best mile time of 5:14, set in 1990 at an outdoor track meet in the Spring of my sophomore year in high school.  I figure the best way to prepare is to run a bunch of 400’s and 800’s over the next few months to get my body used to the pace needed to set a personal best.

This morning was my first track workout in 14 years, and I did 6×400m and 1×800m, with about 5 minutes rest (1.5 to 2 laps) between intervals.  Halfway through my first 400m piece, I saw the time was over 45 seconds and I couldn’t believe how quickly time was passing…  I finished the first 400m in 1:41, and did my last 400m in 1:19.

After 6×400m (with lots of rest), I still felt pretty good, so I decided to do an 800m piece, just to gauge my stamina over a half-mile (almost) distance.  I wanted to do it in 2:50, but would have been satisfied with 3:00 since this would have been my first 800m sprint since high school.  I came through 400m in 1:24, so I knew I was within reach of hitting my goal pace.  I felt good through the second half, holding the pace and finished in 2:49.  By comparison, the world record in the 800m is a 1:41.11 set by Wilson Kipketer (a Dane!) in 1997.  Yup, Danes are mighty fast in rowing and running.

My times:

1:  1:41 (400m)

2:  1:30 (400m)

3:  1:27 (400m)

4:  1:23 (400m)

5:  1:21 (400m)

6:  1:19 (400m)

7:  2:49 (800m)

I’m very pleased with where I am right now.  To break a 5:14 mile, I have to do 400’s in 78 seconds, and 800’s in 2:36.  Had I been sufficiently stretched out and perhaps had one day of recovery between this workout and yesterday’s rowing machine and heavy weights workout, I think I could have run a 5:45 mile – “only” 32 seconds from setting a new personal record.  It’s clear my rowing training is satisfactory for running, but I plan to do regular track workouts for the next few months to gauge my progress toward this goal.  I think between these track workouts, the weightlifting, and the volume of AT work I’ll be doing on the rowing machine over the next four months, I’ll be ready to set a new record in the middle of September – perhaps a good time of year, when the air is not too humid and the morning temperatures are not too hot.  When I can pound out 6×400m each in 75 seconds and then 2×800m each in 2:33, with no more than 4 minutes rest between intervals (one veeeeery slow lap), then I’ll be ready to set a new personal record.