Ladies' 800m Workout

Goal:
8x3 min with 2:30 Rest

Actual:
18 minutes warmup
8x800m at 2:37-2:42 with 2:16-2:34 jogging rest (see below for splits)
35 minutes cool down for ~12.5 miles total

After Meagan raved and raved about her 12k trail race with Alice Rogers, I decided it would be good for our soul to work out with a bunch of ladies.  Turns out that Alice does 800m repeats just about every Tuesday on the Dilworth Speed Loop, so I rounded Meagan up, convinced Jay to work out one week earlier than planned, and determined the meeting time of 6:30am. 

Most of us were running to meet Alice at the start of the speed loop, and Meagan and I both were late, but at different times.  I arrived after Jay, Alice, and Jocelyn had finished their first interval, and Meagan jogged up after they had finished their second, and I had finished my first.  Needless to say, we were all able to start together by Alice's third interval. 

I ran the first one with Alice and just ran relaxed and controlled.  Once Meagan returned, we put on the gas and began to push up the speed.  I looked at just the 400m split on my first interval and then decided that I didn't want to check my split times until the end of the workout and to just run on feel.  Turns out it worked perfectly because my splits did gradually get faster even though I didn't know this until the work out was completed.

For the first 6, Jay sat on my left shoulder and just drafted off of me.  I think he knew that if he positioned himself out front that he would end up pushing it too much for his first workout back since 2010.  His presence helped a ton as Meagan was a couple meters off in the first intervals.  Soon she gathered herself and shortened the gap between us from 3 seconds to 1 second.  At first I was worried that her IT band was bothering her, but fortunately the IT band is healed but her legs are tired (probably from the White Water Center Trails).

I utilized a mental tactic for each of these intervals to make sure that I maintained just as strong of a pace in the second 400m as I had in the first 400m.  Each time I passed the painted 400m mark on the asphalt of Dilworth Road West, I made a conscious effort to pick up the pace and to change gears.  This forced me to maintain the pace that was carried over from the slight downhill featured in the first segment of the loop. This also helped break the 800m up into segments that are easier to handle mentally.  While these times are not exceptionally blazing, they are in sync with what I ran last summer leading up to Twin Cities.  I had a big week last week with two workouts, a 1 mile race, and a 20 mile long run on Sunday, so I'm really quite pleased with the effort today. I also got in a lot of miles, which should help my strength and endurance as I ran over 35 minutes for the cool down.

Time ( Jog Rest Time)

304 (216)
242 (225)
241 (234)
241 (228)
239 (226)
238 (235)
237 (226)
238