Boston Marathon Track Workout #2

I had to move up my weekly Boston Marathon track workout to today, as I am unable to do a track workout on Thursday. I wasn't sure how my legs would react to running fast so soon after my race on Saturday. Anyway, this was my first real Hansons Brooks "speed" workout where the goal is to do a total of three miles of 10k paced intervals with no single interval more than 1600 meters. Today, I decided to do the minimum number of intervals to get to the three miles, which was:

 3 x 1600 @ 6:20/mile pace (with 400m recoveries).

Mid workout at the track

So with that goal in mind, I hit the track and did this:

2 mile warm-up

1600m @ 6:22/mile pace (400m recovery)

1600m @ 6:12/mile pace (400m recovery)

1600m @ 6:08/mile pace

2 mile cool-down

Track workouts seem like an uphill climb for the first few laps...

you start chugging along, fighting to get your speed up...

and as they progress, you get faster...

 then they don't seem so bad as you start to fly around the track...

and soon enough they're over, and you're on your way home!

Analysis: Mission accomplished. My legs responded admirably at the track despite having run a 10k on Saturday. My goal was to run all three intervals at 6:20/mile and I actually averaged 6:14/mile. I felt like I could run another mile or two at the end when normally I am pretty fatigued. Maybe I'm getting stronger? Maybe a Tuesday track session suits me better than a Thursday session? Maybe I had a breakthrough at the 10k on Saturday? In any case, I'll see if I can keep this fitness level up. I will run at least a couple of miles tonight in order stretch out my legs and get some extra mileage.