8:30 AM 31 Dec 2008 @ Rizal High School (Pasig) Oval Track

There were three other joggers/walkers when I started my warm-up run at the Rizal High School Oval Track. After four laps, I had my stretching and speed drills. I decided to have my speed/interval runs in order to correct the defect that Captain Espejo had noticed on my strides and footstrike during my previous run.

I did 10 X 400-meter runs with one-minute recovery in between repetition within my 110% effort. On my 1st to 5th laps, I clocked in 1:35 minutes; 6th & 7th laps at 1:40 mins; 8th lap in 1:38 mins; 9th lap in 1:36 mins; and 10th lap in 1:40 mins. During these repetition runs, I experimented even-pace throughout one lap and slow first half and increasing my pace on the last half of the lap. I found the second mode of running, slow & then fast pace, to be the most comfortable way to undertake such speed runs.

The stage and the 100-meter dash run portion of the Rizal High School (Pasig) Oval Track

The left side of the Oval Track as I was standing from the stage.

After the 10 reps, I had my cool-down with two laps of slow jogging and another two laps of walking. I ended my workout with stretching exercises. I was supposed to run another 45 minutes at my 80%-85% effort after the speed runs but I really felt tired already and I opted to call it a day. I was able to run a total distance of 7.5 kilometers.

After assessing the results of my speed runs, I found out that my time for every lap was faster than the time for my 110% target goal which is 1:45-1:46 minutes. However, I really don’t know how I fare with my time if I try to reach the maximum 20 reps for a typical/normal speed run workout. With this speed run workout, I was able to correct the defect that Coach Espejo had observed from my previous run at the oval track.