I was expecting the big hills of the water tank road this morning, but Larry had decided he wanted to do some speed work at the track, which consisted of 4 - 1/2 mile intervals with 1/4 mile rest in between. My times for the 1/2 mile intervals were 3:05, 3:17, 3:16, and 3:04. After the first interval I realized I had gone too fast and wouldn't be able to hold that for all four. Larry also reminded me that the last interval would have to be my fastest (a goal we have). I ran the second and third intervals at a saner pace, hoping I would have enough left to beat 3:05 on the last interval. As you can see, I barely made it.
This wasn't the workout I had planned for this morning, and I'm not sure how much benefit I got from it, but it was fun. That should count for something. The old neighborhood group (of which Larry and I are currently the only active runners) had the tradition of doing these track intervals once a week during the summer/fall for many years, gradually moving from 4 to 8 repeats and trying to get faster each week, but the tradition has died over the past couple of years. I like doing them because the slower and faster runners can all get a good workout and still be with each other a lot of the time (warm up, rest periods, and cool down).
I should mention that Wayne doesn't live in our neighborhood, but has recently been coming on Tuesdays and Thursdays to run with Larry and me. This was his first experience with these intervals. He didn't know what to expect and I'm not sure he had as much fun as I did.
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