VO2 Max'n It Up!

Woke up early again this morning, and hit the snooze three times. Somehow I managed to drag myself to the park for this workout. I only had 9 easy miles yesterday, so I think it was just me being lazy.

Anyway, the 2 mile warmup was pathetically slow, but I loosened up a little towards the end. It was very humid and smoky, but since the repeats were pretty short it didn't affect me very much. The workout was 6 x 800 with 90% rest. I decided on 2:30- 2:45 for rest, because I figured I would run 2:50- 2:55 for each repeat. The goal was to work at 5k race pace, which is a pace that should be close to your VO2 Max pace. 2:55 per 800 is an 18:07 5k, and 2:50 is 17:36.

Well, I stuck on that pace pretty well for the first three, but it actually felt too easy. My times were:

2:55
2:49
2:49
2:48
2:46
2:37

They're actually half mile times, not 800s since it's on the park trail, but the difference isn't significant. Since the marathon will be on a bike path, it's more useful to do the repeats on similar terrain (rather than on the track). 4 mile cooldown after the workout was slow but didn't feel terrible. I like these types of workouts sooo much more than the long tempos. Bring it on, VO2 Max intervals!

I appreciated all of the walkers and runners on the trail this morning who encouraged me... "Did you just sprint for half a mile?" ummm, yeah I guess. I even got a "You go girl!"