Tonight was the last midweek 10 miler on the schedule. But it wasn't just any 10 miler. It was 10 miles with 10 x 800 with 400 meter jogs in between. I have never done that many 800's before. I was successful with 8 x 800 a few weeks back, so I was determined to make it 2 more this time out.
When I told my coworker and running buddy, Terry, about the plan for tonight, she thought I was absolutely crazy. We've got our longest long run this weekend coming up. Crazy I may be, but I'm only following the direction of the Mayor of Running. Things seems to be going pretty darn well, so who am I to argue?
Admittedly, speedwork is not my thing. During the first 800 I thought "this is going to be tough." The second and third were still a chore. But somewhere around the fifth one I fell into a rhythm. As daunting as 30 laps of the track seems when you think of it ahead of time, they just started clicking off. I'm not sure the 800's got any easier as I progressed, its just that after a while I stopped thinking about it and just ran. I'd have to say that I was pretty consistent throughout the entire 10 x 800's.
3:53, 4:00, 3:54, 3:54, 3:57, 4:00, 4:01, 3:58, 4:00, and 3:55.
Whether this translates to a 4 hour marathon as the mayor suggests, I'll leave to greater minds than mine to debate. All I know it that I'm am glad to have this workout in the books and I'm happy to see no more midweek 10 milers on the schedule through the remaining 3 weeks of training. Yeah!!
6 comments:
Dang that's tough. That's some mental toughness that I need.
Great Job.
I dunno, Darrell. You seem to be clicking. Keep it up!
I'd say with those consistent splits, you stand a good chance of 4 hours if all goes well.
pretty good consistency there. i remember that workout - and it's tough!
Awesome. Just awesome, Darrell.
A lot of folks have mocked the seeming simplicity of these "Yasso 800s". Yet, given adequate long runs, it seems as reliable a predictor as any of the others.
I don't think it means a 4 at HOA, given the heat and hills. But you may be way closer to it than you think.
Big picture, this training cycle has really gone well. The pinnacle hits Saturday...I think you are in good shape for it!!
Of all the workouts I've done, in all the disciplines, 800m repeats are probably the toughest. I think you benefit from the mental toughness aspect as much as the physical training effect.
Great job on this one.
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