Smokin'

I headed up to the high school track, and it was a bit dark and early. During the warm-up jog my legs felt a little tired, and I patted myself on the back that I dragged myself out of bed to do my first track workout of the Bay to Breakers training cycle. Tracky time is always a bit painful and pushes me out of my comfort zone, but I'm certain it boosts speed and builds muscle like nothing else. The track facilities are OUTSTANDING--there's something about that deep rusty-reddish ellipse that gets me going :)

My goal was to do six repetitions of 400s (1 lap of the track), so I treated it like two sets of 3 X 400s. The first three 400s were all under 1:47. I felt like I was cruising through those three intervals, which is not so shabby. And my second three 400s were between 1:41-1:44--with my final two 400s as my fastest! I was definitely concentrating more on that second set and my lungs were working overtime on that last lap.

The best news...I completed all 400s well under the 1:50 specified by the McMillan pace calculator (one of my most trusted running resources!). I think the hill workouts and long runs strengthened my legs because these 400s are quite a bit speedier than my 400s in December-January when I was training for the Kaiser halfie.