First track workout

We have entered the speed portion of our Portland Marathon workout schedule.

Today called for a 2.5 mile warmup that took us to one of the local high school tracks, then we did 6 by 1 mile intervals. During each of the mile intervals, we were to do the first half at our half-marathon pace and the second half of the mile at our 10k pace. We rested for two minutes between each interval.

Before I list my times, I will say I had a little confusion about what my paces were supposed to be. Do I use my half/10k paces based on my PRs at those distances? Or do I use my half/10k paces based on my 5K pr?

Needless to say, trying to figure out pace is just toooo much thinking for so early in the morning and it was still too dark to have to look down at my Garmin every 200 meters to see if I hitting my times. I decided that I would just run according to how I felt. (What a novel idea?). For each mile, I'd run the first half like I was running a half marathon and I'd put in a little more effort on the last half-mile.

Here are the splits.

Mile.......Half.......10k........Time
1...........3:24.......3:18.......6:42
2...........3:30.......3:19.......6:49
3...........3:26.......3:07.......6:33
4...........3:26.......3:01.......6:27
5...........3:21.......3:09.......6:30
6...........3:18.......3:07.......6:25

Avg........3:24......3:10.......6:34


It took me a while to warm up as you can see my first two miles were my slowest times. I felt in control of my breathing and my legs for each set and was very happy that my last 1-mile interval was the fastest of the six, though I got a little carried away during the 10k portion of the fourth interval.

Turns out, the average half-marathon pace is about 20 seconds faster than my half-marathon PR, and the 10k pace is about 40 seconds faster than my 10k PR.

But... before you go gnashing your teeth, saying, "That damn Kevin ran faster than he was supposed to" consider this: My half and 10k PRs came way before I started running 60 miles a week with Team Rogue, so I'm probably in much better shape now than I was then.

Also...

The times for Tuesday's workout are right in line with what my half marathon and 10k paces should be based on my 5K PR of 19:25.

If I plug in my 5K pr numbers, Tuesday's workout should have had me running the first half mile in 3:24 and the second half mile in 3:15.

My average half-mile times were 3:24 and 3:10.

It's a workout I'll gladly take.