Jogging Variation on the Track

This morning was a typical 12 laps (approximately 3 miles) around the track with the exception that my jogging buddy decided to out run me on the sprints and turns on the 11th lap. Although I ended up flying past him on the last sprint of the 12 lap, I really like his approach. He will do much better next time.


This is our strategy. We stretch, we walk around a little, then we start a fairly slow pace for the first lap. We try to speed our pace slightly during the 2nd or 3rd lap. On the 5th lap, we increase our pace on the straight-ways and slow it back down on the curves of the track.


On the 11th and 12th laps we sprint on a shorter portion of the straight parts. This particular morning he went sprinted on the 1st straight-away and did not slow much in the curve. He basically jumped way ahead of me. He did the same thing on the 2nd straight-away. I gained a little.


Since he was so far ahead of me, I did not realize that he had given everything on that 11th lap. I lessen the gap between the two of us. By the time we reached the last of the 12th lap, I sprinted right by him.


We had fun. We learned some lessons. We are ready to do it again. My lesson is that I slow too much in the curves. We in general need to speed that portion up. If we practice it a little more, maybe he nor I will give out.


We know that interval running is good and that it breaks up the monotony.