I've heard for a long time that speed workouts were tough but really worth it. I've been staying away from them since I started running. There are times when I would go out and run 5km fast and be delighted with my time but I never set myself the target of running a set distance fast then a set distance slow and then repeating a few times, pushing myself. I guess I've always been a bit afraid of not being able to keep going and dare I say it the fear that I would actually end up slower than my fast 5km runs or not able to run much faster than my average run pace. I just didn't want to be too slow. After reading a lot of blogs I decided to finally give a speed workout a go. Here is how it went.
I go to the track and had my Garmin Forerunner 305 already pre-programmed with the workout I wanted. I had the distances and repeats in but no target pace as I didn't know what to expect. The idea was to run 2km slow as a warm up and then stretch. After the stretch it was to be 200m slow and 800m fast and to repeat this four times. I was then to finish with another 2km slow and stretch again. All together an 8km workout. As I've never done this before I didn't know what to expect or if I was setting the bar to high for an initial speed workout.
My times for the four 800m fast were as follows:
1st 800m: 3.39
2nd 800m: 3.37
3rd 800m: 3.31
4th 800m: 3.19
Overall I was very happy with the times and the fact that each 800m was quicker than the last. It also felt like it was a good workout. I enjoyed it. I think I may do more of these in the future.
Do you incorporate speed workouts into your training schedule. If so what way do you structure yours and what benefits has it brought to you running?
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