Quartz Hill intervals

I met Clay and Zac at 6:15 am at 65th West and L-8 for a hill workout. Clay was on the bike suppying water during each rest break. Zac was obviously tired. I had run 3 miles of warm up by the time we started. The workout was 4x 1/2 mile hill repeats, with the second one being the most difficult. The first was on 65th from L-8 to M. I lead and finished in 3:05. The second was still on 65th from M to M-8. Zac was running right behind me until half way when he stopped suddenly and ran for the side of the road. I thought for sure he was loosing his breakfast, turns out he found a road reflector that had come loose and he picked it up for a friend's collection. He still almost caught me by the end. I was first to finish the second 1/2 mile hill in 3:19. Clay says the grade on this section of 65th reaches 8% at the end and is around 6% in the beginning. The last two 1.2 mile loops are in a neighborhood just south of M-8 and 65th where Zac has done repeats before. The first half of the loop is tough then levels out at the top and finishes downhill. I was spent after the first two and Zac was about 10 seconds ahead of me. I finished in 3:10 and 3:05. He was under 3:00 for both. I ran a cool down home (2 miles) for a total of 7 miles today. It was a tough workout but I felt really good about it. I think my achilles will be a little sore tomorrow. We did not time our rest breaks but started on perceived readiness. There is an interesting article on runnersworld.com on perceived readiness during interval training that is worth a read.


FYI: Sergio Reyes is running the 10,000m at USA championships on Thursday at 6:20 pacific time. The meet is in Iowa. It will be broadcast live on flotrack.org. Check it out.