Well, it took me a couple of years, but I finally managed to get back on a track and really do a workout. Equally as difficult was finding some people to run with as well as a track. You see, down here in North Carolina, the public schools aren’t as open to strangers running on their tracks (even though we’re taxpayers). In any case, I digress. The workout was as follows:
3 X 2000 meters w/ 1 lap recovery inbetween each
1 mile w/ 1 lap recovery
1 mile (jogging the turns and sprinting the straightaways)
Overall, this was a really good track re-introduction for me. I was running the first part of my workout with all men who are active marathoners. I also ended up modifying the workout a little because they were doing between 4-5 X2000 meters (which was a bit much for me to start back with). We were on pace to run each successive 2000m a little faster than the one before. So, for example, we ran the first mile split at 6:21, the second at 6:17 and the third one was around 6:13.
Overall, I’m really pleased that I was able to keep up with these guys. The pace that they were trying to run wasn’t anything blistering, but it was a good start for someone who hasn’t done any sort of speed work in a while (ahem, ahem). I’m not sure that I’ll ever run a marathon, but if I can keep up with these guys, you never know!
If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win. -Carl Lewis