Running Hard at 41 Years Old

3200 warm up
600 6x100 striders
600 (200)

400 (300)
600 (400)

600 (200)

400 (300)
600 (400)

600 (200)

400 (200)

600 warm down

total: 6.75 miles

77°F
Clear
Wind: N at 12 mph
Humidity: 42%
course: Wheaton College track

Tough workout. Might be the longest track workout we have done. My birthday run. Turned 41. I slept poorly last night, and felt its affects. The workout's pace was 'fresh.' That's two steps before all-out, as I understand it. My pace was around 95 seconds for the 400s, and around 2:30 for the 600s. I nicked off a 91 or 92 400, and a 2:28 600 along the way. That's an improvement from my first few weeks running, to be sure.

John Grebe is a bit faster than me, but close enough that I can almost keep up with him. I can, but it takes more work for me to run his pace than he mine. His constant refrain, and rightly so, is to take it easier the first few intervals. This week, and previous weeks, he reminds of what I need to hear.

That's the crux of my present struggle -- how hard should I go? I'm improving rapidly, maybe more rapidly than the others at the moment, but I need to get the most out of each workout. Jim designs these things with more than whim in mind. There is running theory behind all of this, and I am in no position to second guess him. Each distance, each pace, each recovery distance: he has something going on in all of this, and I want to be sure to suck out from them the juice of faster running.