300s, Sort Of

25 min w/u (3 miles)
12x300 w/100 jog
(60, 59, 60, 59, 59, 58, 58, 59, 59, 58, 59, 58)
25 min c/d (3 miles)
Total: 9 miles

Well. This didn't go quite as planned. The workout was originally billed as 16x300 in sets of four (58s for the first set, 57s for the second, and so on). For some reason, however, I just couldn't get it into gear. I started off hitting the first one in 60 and just couldn't cut it down much after that. Even the 100m "rest" jog, which was supposed to be in 35, I couldn't hit any faster than 38-40. Since I wasn't hitting the splits or getting much faster, I cut the workout after 12. I had been running at Grady High School, just across the street from Piedmont Park, so I headed over to the park to do some of my cool down.




One of the trails in Piedmont Park

What's interesting is that I lengthened the wog home, spent some more time in the park, and my legs felt fine. By the end they felt no more fatigued than they would on a regular run, despite having just run a hard (partial) workout. No flailing about on the Inman Middle School steps, which I suppose is a small victory. Overall I'm not upset about the workout--as I think my effort Tuesday was a more accurate gauge of my current fitness--just slightly perplexed as to why I was struggling to run 300s at a pace I could normally split en route to a 400.

I stretched for a bit when I got home, and man are my hamstrings stiff. I haven't been to yoga in over two weeks and it shows. I'll probably do a short shakeout run tonight to keep the legs loose.