Ouch!

Ah...so here we are. Getting into the nitty-gritty, "running with a purpose workouts". I was on the track today at Camp H.M. Smith, which is pretty lovely as far as tracks go. It's not the nice cushy track material, but it's regular pavement and that's fine and it has a beautiful view of Pearl Harbor and the Pacific. It's also and odd size and length - .44 miles. However, if you start at the designated "start" line, then the 400s (or quarter miles...whatever) are marked out for you as long as you run in a clockwise direction. Anyway, here is my workout that I did today:

3 very easy laps (just over 1 1/4 miles) to warm up

4x800 aiming at 3:30 per 800*

3 very easy laps cool down

Total: 10 laps or 4.44 miles (I jogged to and from the track, so I'm going to go ahead and say I put in 4.5 today)

How did I fare, you may ask? Well, I was dreading this workout all day because track workouts have always been my least favorite. Throughout my entire high school and collegiate running career I never ran track, only cross country. I'm not a fan of running in circles. So, I tried not to psych myself out, but I'm afraid I kinda did anyway. Here are my times, and the accompanying songs from my precious (3 of the 4 are on Ashleigh's Definitive Kick-Ass Running Mix:

1 - 3:22 {"Anytime" by Eve 6}

2 - 3:28 {"Definition" by Blackstar}

3 - 3:32 {"Sugar, We're Goin' Down" by Fall Out Boy}

4 - 3:40 {"Mr. Brightside" by The Killers}

As you can see, the middle two were right on the money, but the first one was overly ambitious, and I definitely hit the proverbial "wall" on the last go-round. All in all, not a horrible workout, but I can definitely tell that my speed is WAY down, as well as my ability to find a good pace and sink into it. But, that will take time. And since it was my first track workout in ages so I won't beat myself up too much over it.

Extra Bonus: track workouts only come once a week so I'm done with that for 7 days! Woot Woot!


*3:30 is the magic number today because that's a 7:00 minute mile pace. My goal is to run this marathon somewhere between a 7:30-8:00 mile pace the whole time (rather ambitious I know, but it's early on and I'm still all glassy-eyed and dreamy). A lot of running articles I've read tell you to determine how fast to run your intervals based on percentage of max heart rate. Since I have yet to procure a heart rate monitor, I just went ahead and picked what I felt was an obtainable goal faster than my goal race pace (it has to be faster because it's only for a short distance. Man, this is the longest footnote ever. I think I'll have to dedicate an entire post to interval workouts)