My Facebook status update last night was the following:
…which pretty much sums it up. I’m stubborn about admitting to being “sick,†though I do get cold-like symptoms maybe once a year, usually around this time. Jen likes to give me a hard time since I like to say I never get sick.
And I’m certainly not going to let some sniffling, sneezing, and coughing get in the way of a good workout – or a good time out on the town.
So sure enough, I put in a hard afternoon workout yesterday: 2-mile warm-up, followed by 6×400-meter intervals @1:26 average time with 200-meter rest in between, concluding with another 1.2-mile cool-down. It was the first I’d run 400s at all since May – and, from what I could find in my training log – I think only the third time since I started running last year. And wow, are they hard. These after a tempo run the day before (5+ with 3 @ 6:58 average pace).
Using McMillan as my guide (and my 19:31 5k PR as my input), I was shooting for between 1:25-1:30 per 400, which is roughly a 5:38-5:58 per mile pace. I ran the first one a little fast (1:24), but was pretty consistent (and a little slower) the next 5 laps. The key with intervals is to run them consistently so that your last one is as fast as your first one.
Here’s what each lap looked like (minus the 200-meter jogs in between each):
| 1 | 1:24 |
| 2 | 1:25 |
| 3 | 1:27 |
| 4 | 1:27 |
| 5 | 1:30 |
| 6 | 1:28 |
| Avg. | 1:26 |
I’m also almost done reading a book called Once A Runner, declared by Runner’s World “the best novel ever written about running.†It is a great book – about an elite miler – and my intervals yesterday, though a miniscule workout in comparison to the book’s protagonist, Quenton Cassidy, made me think of the fictitious character as I panted and pushed hard in each lap.
So after a punishing workout, despite this so-called “cold,†what’s a guy to do? Hit happy hour, of course! As James noted in response to aforementioned Facebook update: “That’s the Gabe I know and love – nothing eases a sore throat or cleanses the palate of bile quite like an ice cold beer!†You know it, James!
After work Jen, Jami, and I took the 2-for-1 Wheatfield’s happy hour by storm, followed by a brief coat trying-on session at the Saratoga Saddlery (Jami ever the sales person) – Jen found a winter / rain coat she really likes – and then we hit Max London’s for $9 pizza night, where we enjoyed a delicious tuna tartare appetizer and some shrimp pizzas, with a nightlong of laughs on the side.
Good times, and just another Wednesday in Saratoga!
