Track Thursday: getting faster

I laced up my running shoes after work for another installment of Track Thursday!

I used the same plan as before from No Meat Athlete's "3 Track Workouts Guaranteed to Kick Your A$$": 3 x 1 mile with 200 m rest intervals

I sped it up again, this time aiming for an 8:40 average for each mile. (Last time I aimed for 8:45)
It was soggy but sunny when I headed out for my warm-up lap. As I ran, the clouds rolled in, and it started spitting as I finished up. Not bad! There was a pretty significant headwind coming from the south/west - woohoo.
My first mile was 8:40 on the nose. Second mile was 8:39. My third mile was 8:27 - woohoo!

In all, I did 3.75 miles in 35:54. My overall average, including my warm up, cool down and rests, was 9:35.
It was hard, but not crazy. It felt really good.

I haven't raced in a while, and I'm interested to see how I do next week at my 10K. I'm hoping this speed work is helping to lower my times. I'm contemplating my game plan to PR :)

On a side note... I've been riding my bike the short distance to work whenever possible. I have great rain and cold-weather gear - so there's not much excuse to not ride. I reached a milestone during today's ride home:
Since the beginning of school, I've ridden more than 100 miles - mostly just to school and home (just a couple other pedal-powered errands). Considering the round-trip ride is only about 3 miles, that's pretty good! I feel great about that :)

I hope I can keep it up through the winter months!

:)