Tried my luck

Sun, 12/3-The other day I reached out to Pete Carroll (Swarthmore) for a little 400/800-meter training advice, as I feel I am getting a little stale.  Here's what he said:

So, I like doing simulations.  For example 6-8X 200m, 1 minute rest, at current fitness race pace for 800m.  After a couple weeks of that (1 time per week), you can increase parts of the durations i.e. 200m, 300m, 200m, 300m, 200m, and then build to 200m, 400m, 200m, 300m, 200m.....even putting in a 500m where the 400 was.  You may need to have a 2 minute rest after the 200m following the long interval.  I like to keep the rest 1 minute after the long interval and run the 200m tired to work on maintaining form.  

Another workout I like, and that may be fun for you is running 100m, 110m, 120m, 130m, 140m, 150m, 160m, 170m, 180m, 190m, 200m.  So, you need to put a cone (or some sort of marker) every 10m.  Start out the 100m at current fitness for the Mile, slowly segue-way (sic) to current 800m race pace by 150m, and segue-way (sic) to current 400m race pace by the 200m endpoint.  The rest between each one is easy jog back to your next start point.   

The final suggestion is to maintain a 2-3 mile tempo run (and you can do this on the track) once a week or once every two weeks.  Take your recent 5k race pace and run the tempo/threshold at 85% of that race pace.  If you are not sure how to figure out your tempo/threshold pace, you can use the Jack Daniels calculator found here:  http://runsmartproject.com/calculator/.  For example, if your current race pace for 5k is 7:00/mile, run your tempo/threshold at 7:27 pace on the track.  You need to hit the training button to find out your threshold pace.  Let me know if you have and other questions.

He went on to say, 

if you are in pretty good shape, I think you could do the threshold workout and the simulations each once a week. I would stay at a certain pace for 3-4 weeks until you go a little faster.  The rest of the week would be maintenance.  I wouldn't start doing the 100, 110, 120 workout until maybe 6-8 weeks before a upcoming big race.  That is just a sharpening workout.  

So, I tried my luck at 8x200 with a 60-second rest.  The result: 33-low, 32-high, 32-low, 32-mid, 32-mid, 33-low, 33-low, 31-low.  My goal is to get these down to sub-30.

Sat, 12/2-Just lifted a little.

Fri, 12/1-Ran about 4M.

Thurs, 11/30-While in Anaheim, I ran about three miles on the road, followed by 6x300 on the treadmill, using the 11.5 setting.  I then lifted a little.