MQ for BQ - Week 2 begins - First intervals on a track

Week 2 schedule has the following: Interval Run: 3 x 1600m @ 6:12 w/ 1min rest (since I did not do this last week) Tempo Run: 1 mile easy; 5 miles @ 7:26; 1 mile easy Long Run: 15 miles @ 8:11 Cross Train 2 times.

I did the intervals this morning. I went to a track for this, something I have not run on for about 17 years. I drove to a local college that I knew had an open track. After a couple of warm-up laps I had a need for a bathroom. Unfortunately the stadium ones were locked as was the adjacent student center. I started to get a bit worried and walked away from the track just a bit and could it be? Yes! A porta-potty was set up for some construction work on a nearby building. And it was not locked. Not much to steal from a porta potty I guess. Business done and back to the track.

The only other bad thing about the track was that the four inner lanes had hurdles set up and a sign at the gate said to not move the hurdles. Lane 5 became my fast lane. And my trusty Garmin 305 was my measuring device which showed lane 5 required only about 3 and 2/3 laps to hit one mile.

I had never done one mile repeats before, so I did not know what to expect. I hit the first one with a 6:09 pace, but struggled through it. The second one was tougher and I pushed it, but ended with 6:18. For mile repeat number three I pretty much didn't try for the 6:12. I did what I could and got 6:34.

During that last mile and my cool down I of course had to rationalize my times. I'm using the FIRST training plan which has these specific interval, tempo and long run training paces for hitting my marathon goal pace. I understand that intervals build speed and endurance, especially the longer intervals such as the 1600. But how do they know that doing these three mile repeats at 6:12 will help me run at 7:26 for the marathon? And how bad could it be if I did them at, say 6:20 or 6:30 instead? Heh, I am obviously just trying to not feel bad for not hitting the plan's goal.

I'm not going to worry about it too much. Instead I'm going to look forward to my tempo run on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure I can do the 5 miles at 7:26 pace as I've done more than that before. The tempo and long runs and their goal paces don't scare me, but the intervals with their 6-ish minute per mile paces are intimidating.

Happy Running!