Track Tuesday : 3 x 1600

Sometimes I plan my track workouts weeks in advance, and I am really strict about sticking to the plan.  Other times, I don't decide what I'm doing until I show up to the track.  And then there are the days like today, when I make a last-minute plan, and then change it again after I start.  

Track workouts for me are not always about a specific training plan or goal.  I am fairly certain that most of my workouts would be more beneficial for 5k training than for half marathon or marathon training, but I'm ok with that.  I have no desire to run long-distance repeats in the endless circles on the track.  I suspect my short repeats really aren't going to do much for my marathon time, but I still think they are beneficial in their own way.  It's good to train your legs to do different things.  And I definitely saw the benefit of the track workouts when I ran the 2 mile hill challenge over the summer.  

I stayed after school today to watch the basketball game at 6:00, so I did my track workout on the school's old asphalt track. I was going to do 4 x 800, but about halfway through the first one I decided I was doing 1600s instead. As I was able to easily maintain my starting pace, it clearly wasn't the right pace for 800s anyway.  I ended up with 3 pick-up 1600s. My watch was convinced that a mile was 3.5 laps in lane 1, but I kept track of the actual 1600 splits. They ended up at 6:40, 6:38, and 6:29. (I did push a bit harder in the last 200m of the last one)

I felt really good about these repeats.  I wasn't trying to push them too hard, or to do as many repeats as possible.  It was meant as a chance to let me legs move a little faster without overdoing it, and I feel like that is 100% what I accomplished. 

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I did my first workout on this track last fall, and it was brutal!  Night and day from today's workout.  That day was hot, and there was someone mowing the grass inside the track, which aggravated my allergies and made breathing harder than normal.  It was my first track workout in a very long time, and I had always struggled with getting through the track workouts.  I managed to slog through the ladder I had planned, but it was low quality due to my allergies and overall dislike of the track. 

Fast forward to today, the experience was so much different!  I have been doing track workouts more or less consistently since last February, and having the group to do them with has made them so much less torturous.  Now I actually don't mind doing the workouts alone when I need to! 

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Do you do track workouts?  Alone or with a group?  Do you have a favorite distance for your track repeats?  Do you like track workouts or hate them with a fiery passion? 

Let me know in the comments!