Trail Running Blog

Running Mile Intervals on the Track

Wednesday, January 9, 2002
Workout: Perimeter + 2 laps around the track, 2-200 meter strides, 4-1 mile repeats at 6 minute pace, 1 mile cooldown
Time: 6:00, 6:00, 6:21, 5:56 Weather: warm, windy

Intervals were planned as usual, however, since Fernando heard we were a little sluggish, he said 6-minute miles, which shouldn’t be that hard. That pace should have been “easy”, but comfortable. So we ran our warm-up and did strides like usual, then we got into the workout. This was the first time we did mile repeats, so I guess it was a new experience. The week before, we ran 1200 meter intervals, but this was one more lap, which makes a big difference.

The first on we did and finished, I was pretty tired and so was Andrew, but it might have just been because we were a little sluggish. We finished running the second interval and on to the third. On the third mile interval, we ran our first lap slower than the pace, but Fernando said to slowly work our way up, because we had 3 laps to catch up..

We all finished running that interval really bad, but mine was the worse. We just shook it off and did our last one. I hung on a little behind for the first lap and then the gap widened after each lap. Then on the last one, Sergio said Bell Lap, which meant all out! I continued then when Andrew and Ha were at the 200 meter mark, Andrew yelled for me to catch up to them. At the 150 meter mark, I started to kick and came within two seconds of them, after a way bigger gap. This was a good workout, overall, even though on our third mile interval, we were a little off pace. This was the first time we did this workout and we can only get better.

I have to admit that mile intervals were never my favorite workout. Then again, anything involving a large distance was never my favorite. I always felt like it was a waste of energy to run and train so much when you race for only 1-3 miles, or even less during track season! But I’m sure every running coach would agree that it’s necessary to run and train this much if you want to get better during races. It’s just so hard to run one mile and then rest for a minute or two and then run another and another..But in the end, it paid off pretty well.