Trail Running Blog

Interval Workout: Mile Repeats on the Track

Workout: 1 mile warm up, 4-1 mile repeats at 6:40 pace, 1 mile cool down
Time: 6:39 (172 bpm, 127 calories); 6:38 (181 bpm, 137 calories); 6:39 (183 bpm, 140 calories); 6:23 (186 bpm, 138 calories) 1:24 all out last lap. Peak HR: 201.
Weather: Sunny and windy around the backstretch and final 100 meter

The last time I ran on the track, I ran one mile all out just to see what kind of shape I was in. I was pretty happy with running a 6:02 considering it wasn’t that long after I started running again. Fast forward a couple of months after a lot more miles and even an actual race under my belt, I decided to try mile repeats on the track, which is an interval workout which I used to do in high school all the time.

Like a race, I tried the same routine that I would do when I ran in high school cross country and track. So I got a good one mile warm up on the track and did my whole routine of stretches before. I guess I should have done strides before the mile repeats too, since we used to do that before as well. Now since this is the first time doing mile repeats in so long, I wasn’t even sure if 6:40 was a reasonable pace. Now I have ran around 6:40 on some of my workouts and in the one race I ran, but I wasn’t sure If I would be able to run another mile after the first one at that pace.

Mile Repeats Splits-Pace Tattoo

I actually wrote down the splits for each 400 meters I was supposed to be at for a 6:40 pace. Like anybody starting a race, I started the mile repeat really fast, just because I had so much energy to start with (not the same situation at the end). So my first 100 meters was actually 5 seconds ahead of pace. However, each subsequent 100 meters was about 4-5 seconds ahead, which meant I was running at the correct 6:40. But toward the end of each mile, I was getting closer and closer to the actual 6:40 time which meant I was running a little slower too. Either way I was able to hit below the 6:40 mile mark for each interval workout.

The first two miles were alright, it wasn’t that difficult to hit the mark, but the third one I was a little bit ahead of pace for the first lap or two and knowing that I might have slowed down a bit because I finished just before 6:40. I was quite surprised about that. The final one I wanted to hit pace the first three laps and then just go all out and see how fast I would run it. I was pretty pleased with the last lap time: 1:24, overall mile time: 6:23. It was really tough jogging the cool down though, since I was so tired. But it felt good running it, knowing how well I did during the actual workout. I got some great comments and feedback about the workout on DailyMile about the mile repeats, specifically saying that “Mile repeats are one of my love/hate workouts. I hate doing them, but love the results.” This is totally true, in high school this was one of the workouts I dreaded doing, but here I am running on my own and still doing it, just because I know it will help me in the future. I plan on doing this workout again the next chance I get and hopefully it will pay off for the Bonita 5000 coming up in two weeks!