A tale of two workouts

Most serious runners keep a training log. I've found it to be a great tool for analyzing what works and what doesn't work for me. It's also motivating when you notice that you are improving at the same workout. Earlier this week I ran a session of 16 x 400 on the Rocky River track with 100 meter jogs for recovery. The goal was to run the 400s at about 8K/10K effort. From the beginning I noticed that I was hitting my recoveries much faster than usual, while hitting my 400s at the desired pace. Definitely a really good sign. For the 400s I was nailing consistent 87's and the recoveries were all like 30-33 seconds. Normally when I do this workout it takes me about 40 seconds for each recovery jog. With that said, my overall time for 8k (5 miles) was 31:51 (4 miles of work at just under 5:50 pace, plus a total of one mile easy on the recoveries). Looking back at my log, I noticed that earlier this summer and fall I did the same workout and while my 400s were at similar pace, the overall time was much slower. The last time I did this workout my overall time had been in the high 33's and before that, just over 35. This leads me to believe that whatever I'm doing now is working for me! Obviously race performance is the most important thing and as fall kicks in, I'm feeling optimistic. Next up is a 5K road race on Saturday and the following week, a Halloween themed 2 mile race in New Orleans. For the latter, I'll wear a costume and treat more as a hard workout than a serious race.