I survived this one…in honor of my son

Jan 2, 2014

In honor of my son, who just boarded a plane back to Oberlin College to take an intensive course in Russian, I headed to Westtown School for a workout of modified Russian intervals.  Typically, for a 2:00 HS 800m runner, the workout consists of 5 (3x300) where the runner does 5 sets of the following: a 300, 100m jog in 30 sec, then another 300, followed by a 100m jog in 30 sec, then another 300.  The 300 pace is 48 seconds.  800m jog is taken between sets.

On this cold and somewhat windy day, I decided to see how the first 300s went and then go from there.  

I ran 48 seconds, walked across the high jump area and ran a second one after 60 seconds' rest.  The time: 52.  Ouch.  I reassessed my situation, realizing that my legs were in no shape for this workout.  I jogged an 800 while I considered my options.  

Like at least once before, I chose to do 200s instead of 300s.  My rest, however, would be only 30 seconds, not the 45 or 60 seconds I gave myself before. My 800 jog rest between sets would remain 6:00.  My goal was 32 for the 200s.  I figured that this workout would allow me to build to the full 300.

My runs:
300s: 
48, 60-sec rest, 52
800m jog


200s:
32,33,34 (30-sec rest between each)
800m jog
32,33,34 (30-sec rest between each)
800m jog


300s: 49, 60-sec rest, 49

200s:
31,32,31 (30-sec rest between each)

I survived this one;  I persisted, as I would want my son to. There is much more work to be done.