400 repeats

I'm getting ready for my first 5K of 2015-- the Chilly Dawg race on January 24.

This means I've added speedwork to my training, namely quarter-mile repeats. I did faster 800s getting ready for my 8K PR last month and it made a difference. So I've started doing 400s at the high school track which is in my backyard. I could hop my fence out back and go through the taller wooden picket fence (the students don't have any problem with it) and get there in less than five minutes. However, I go the long way around and it's 1.5 before I start. There are also the loops in the neighborhood that could add to the warmup, but today I left that part out.

We returned from our annual football bowl trip last night and stayed up too late and drank too much mineral water, and I paid for it. Last week I did 12x400 and it was good, solid work. This time I could only muster 7x400. The times are a little misleading, since the track is like .27, but my laps were 95-97, which is a little faster than last week. I broke things down into three-minute intervals, doing the repeat and then rest for the remaining time.

So I have a few more weeks of that before the race. I will likely keep some form of speedwork going for a while, since my base pace has been around 8:30 for several years, and I'm ready to change that up. I don't really know how it'll go since I'm starting to place a greater importance on other things in my life besides running. I hope to keep weekly mileage at about 20. It's nice in a way, since Saturday can be the long run and speed day both at the same time.