20 x 400

This is one of my favorite workouts. Tough but a great confidence builder. Yesterday I went to the Rocky River track and after an easy two mile warm up, I ran twenty 400s at 10K race effort with 100 meter jogs for recovery trying not to take more than 40 seconds in between each rep. I managed to hit 87/88 for almost all of the reps with one or two at 86 or 89 depending on how the wind was. One half of the track was extremely windy, more so than usual at Rocky River. Someone needs to build a dome over that track! Anyway what I like about this workout is that it mimics a race, feeling easy early on because 400s aren't that long, but after a while the short recoveries catch up to you. My old coach, Pete Magill, likens this workout to putting your hand on a stove and just as it gets hot, pulling it away. If you can hold pace all the way and not slow down on your recoveries, it's a good indicator that you can hold this pace in a 8K/10K race. The entire workout adds up to 10K on the nose (25 laps). Based on the fact that I averaged 5:50ish pace for the reps I'm thinking that I should be able to run somewhere between 36:00 and 37:00 for 10K at the Peace Race on Sunday depending on the weather.