gotta hold back

Common sense says I should be taking it easy this week. But couldn't pass up a speed workout at the East 6th Street track-it's like a novelty for me!-as well as a coupla Blue Moons afterwards :) Just figure I'd modify it based on how I was feeling, no?

The workout was supposed to be 200/400/400/600/400/300/200-a reverse ladder of sorts. Wasn't sure if I would do the whole thing-play it by ear-as as you will see, I skipped the 3rd 400 in favor of extra recovery and the last 200 as well-had some intervention there (thanks!! someone had to do it :) ) Oh yeah-these intervals were supposed to be at 5K pace-which i'm guessing for me right now would be 7:30ish. Didn't quite net out like that...

Interval Length	Time	Pace	Comment
200m	0:46	6:10	holy crap, that sure as hell is not my 5K pace!
400m	1:39	6:38	neither is that. SLOW DOWN!!
400m	1:44	6:58	better, did feel like I was holding back, but still too fast...slow down, biatch!! :-p
600m	2:41	7:11	well at least I didn't sub 7 this one!!
300m	1:22	7:19	ok, this is more like 5K pace...my PR 5K pace!! Still really felt like I was holding back...but have to keep Sunday in mind.

I think, after doing intervals in Central Park and on the reservoir (slower surface, plus lots of people-dodging)...once I hit a flat surface like the track, it's a whole new ballgame. The first few intervals weren't easy pace, but I didn't feel like I was going all out either. (And had I not been racing this weekend, I would have been told to keep doing sub-7s for the workout!) But I did end the workout still feeling good, which was the most important thing. (And feeling fine today too.)

Also-last time I was at this track was back in October...the workout was 400m repeats...5 or 6 of them? I was told to shoot for 1:40s...the first was 1:42, the remainder was between 1:45 and 1:47...and that felt harder than yesterday's workout did!!

So...even though I did feel like I really had to hold back in this workout-knowing that compared to last time-if the problem last night was finding it hard to hold back, that was the better "problem" to have.

It just means I will have to really keep things in check for mile 1 on Sunday...but I usually do better pacing in longer distances...as a certain marathon showed :)