Last night was my first track practice of the season with Community Running. Every Monday evening from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM throughout the winter Community Running offers coached speed interval workouts at the MIT Indoor track. Brian Hamill, a coach for Run for Research is also head coach for Community Running, and a healthy amount of Liver folk like me join Community Running as part of our training for the Boston Marathon. We always start off with a short 1.8 mile warm up run outside, followed by various types of speed workouts on the track each week.
This week it was an 8 x 600 interval workout. But, first, a comment on the outdoor warm-up: It was snowing!
This week it was an 8 x 600 interval workout. But, first, a comment on the outdoor warm-up: It was snowing!
As I'm walking to the MIT Athletic Center I notice things floating in the light around the streetlights - snow. No, nothing that would ever accumulate, just very light flurries. But it was real snow - that thing that rain turns into when it's below freezing. That means that it was below freezing. And it was a bit windy. Together, this made the warm-up run, well, not terribly warm.
I guess it had to happen sooner or later (I just wish it was later).
What is an 8 x 600 Interval workout?
8 x 600 means 8 intervals of 600 meters (3 laps around a standard 200 meter indoor track) at a given goal pace. Not mentioned in the standard shorthand is a 200 meter shuffle (slow jog) between each interval, and a 3-4 minute rest half way through.
What is the goal pace?
In this case the goal pace was our 5K race pace. For me that's something like 8:30 minute miles (about 7 miles per hour). And I'm just guessing at that. The last time I did this Coach Brian gave us a sheet identifying goal marathon paces and related paces for other distances. But Coach Brian wasn't there last night (he ran the Las Vegas Marathon on Sunday - he did 03:37:43). And I left the sheet from two years ago at home without bothering to memorize it. And I forgot my Garmin at home too. So, since I didn't know the actual pace I needed to run at, and had no way to tell if I was running at that pace, I just ran the 600 meter intervals as fast as I could. Seemed about right, and it was exhausting.
But felt really really good, especially when climbing into bed after a hot shower when I got home.
I guess it had to happen sooner or later (I just wish it was later).
What is an 8 x 600 Interval workout?
8 x 600 means 8 intervals of 600 meters (3 laps around a standard 200 meter indoor track) at a given goal pace. Not mentioned in the standard shorthand is a 200 meter shuffle (slow jog) between each interval, and a 3-4 minute rest half way through.
What is the goal pace?
In this case the goal pace was our 5K race pace. For me that's something like 8:30 minute miles (about 7 miles per hour). And I'm just guessing at that. The last time I did this Coach Brian gave us a sheet identifying goal marathon paces and related paces for other distances. But Coach Brian wasn't there last night (he ran the Las Vegas Marathon on Sunday - he did 03:37:43). And I left the sheet from two years ago at home without bothering to memorize it. And I forgot my Garmin at home too. So, since I didn't know the actual pace I needed to run at, and had no way to tell if I was running at that pace, I just ran the 600 meter intervals as fast as I could. Seemed about right, and it was exhausting.
But felt really really good, especially when climbing into bed after a hot shower when I got home.
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