Working Out with Johnny C at PDS

Time: 77:35
Distance: ~11.50 miles

W/u: 25:32 for 3.15 miles
W/o: 3 mile tempo @ 5:15-5:20, 3 x 1200 w/ splits of 73, 70, 67 for 3:30
C/d: 26:40 for 3.09 miles

I was happy to have John Compton along for the ride on this workout over at PDS. We warmed up from the school down to the Boyce bathrooms and back. The plan was to run a 3 mile tempo in the neighborhood near the school just to tire out the legs and then hit the track for some solid splits. I love workouts like this as I try to survive the tempo and then attack the track business.

Splits:
5:13, 5:17, 5:24 for 15:54 total

(5:36 rest to jump a fence and change shoes)

3:30.38 - 71, 70, 69
(3:00)
3:31.08 - 71, 70, 70
(3:00)
3:28.97 - 73, 71, 64

Don't let the 3 mile tempo splits fool you as the course we ran started off downhill and gradually got harder. The start of the final mile was at the base of a hill and when John and I crested it, we were running 5:45 pace. It took a bit of an effort to get things back on track after that. Our mission was accomplish during the tempo section by tiring the legs a bit.

We hopped a fence and made it back over to the track as quickly as possible. I changed into my flats and geared up for the 1200s. I had a hard time relaxing to start which you can see from the first two intervals. I didn't have the nice 73, 70, 67 progression. The splits were relatively even because I couldn't relax off the line. I was also struggling into the wind on the backstretch.

On the last one I asked John to help me out in the middle. I ran a controlled 73 and then John took over pacing duties for the second lap. It felt like we were walking down the far side of the track, but checking my split at 600m (1:48) told me we were right on. I haven't been able to run off someone's shoulder in a track workout in months, if not years. It felt so much better knowing the work was being done up front by someone else. I was ready to pounce when we hit the bell lap and I smoothly rattled off a 64. This gave me a bit of confidence after having a hard time running 32s yesterday in some 200s.