Track work in the heat

Our Jim Spivey track workout on Thursday evening was fun!  Well, it was not so fun in that it was hot and humid.  In fact, I was very crampy during the night after the workout and the following morning - think I was a bit dehydrated. The good part is that I did the entire workout.   

We did a 2 mile warm-up on the Prairie Path as usual, then stretched at the track and did 6 X 100 strides.  Then we ran 4 X 200 at fresh pace - can talk, not a tempo pace (100 recovery jog in between) [400 recovery jog after].  After that it was 600 good - backed off of race pace a little [400 jog].  Next came 4 x 250 fgfg (150) [600].  Then we did another 600 g [400].  The last set was 4 X 200 f (100).  We ended with an 800 cool down jog.  About 7 miles.

I was happy - my 600 g times were 2:49 (1:45 - 7:00 pace - for the first 400 - and 7:31 pace overall) and 2:46 (7:23 pace).  

[Data geek alert! Skip this if you think tracking heart rate through a track workout is over the top!]  My heart rate was running pretty high (178 max on the g) but the heart rate graph for the workout shows I did it right and had good recovery intervals.  Pretty cool to see the heart rate build on warm up, drop during stretching, the six building spikes on strides, the drop again, the four building spikes on the 4X200 f, the drop again, the big peak for the 600 g, the drop yet again, the lower/higher/lower/higher peaks on the 4x250 fgfg (150), another drop, the big peak on the 600 g (this time consistent with no variation between the 1st 400 and the last 200, which is why my time was a little better), yet another drop, the even HR peaks on the 4 X 200 (which was interesting because my times got a little slower on these as I went on, which means I was pretty well cooked by that point, I think), and the final drop before a slight build on the cool down.