Intervals, intervals, (fast) intervals...

We had a nice, blow out the lungs speed workout with Gilbert's Gazelles Tuesday morning....

 

1.5 mile warm up

4 x 2,000 meters on the paved road around the soccer fields across the street from Zilcher Park at 10k pace with about a two-minute rest between each interval

1.5 mile cool down

 

My 2k times/min per mile paces....

 

1 - 7:25 (5:59 min/mile)

2 - 7:19 (5:54 min/mile)

3 - 7:44 (6:14 min/mile) I paid for running the second interval too hard. Wasn't quite "recovered" before running this one.

4 - 7:32 (6:04 min/mile)

 

As you can see, these paces are closer to my 5k times than my 10k times. (My best 10k is about a 6:45 min/mile pace, which means I should have run these 2k intervals no faster than 8:30 or so - 8:30 as in total time, not pace.)

 

But then again, my best 10k was in March. And besides, as I've said here many times, when you run with a group of people, a race always breaks out.

 

Still, I should have been smarter. The first interval felt pretty good. No heavy breathing. (Well, there was some heavy breathing, but I was not sprinting or anything). The second interval I just got totally stupid. Me and this other guy kept exchanging "the lead" and it did kinda sorta turn into a race the last 100 meters. When it was time to start the third interval, my lungs were still "spasming" and I took an extra 10 to 15 seconds after everyone from my group took off before I took off. This was the hardest interval. My breathing was most labored here, my legs hated me but my mind said keep going, keep going and I finally started feeling like myself during the final 50 or so meters. I actually felt better during the last interval and think if I had maintained this pace for the first two intervals, it would have been a successful workout.

 

Still, I have to admit that I am blown away that I could hit sub 6-minute mile pace twice duing the workout. The total workout amounts to 8k (4.96 miles) in exactly 30 minutes, a tidy 6:03 min/mile pace.

 

Chicago is coming, Chicago is coming!!!