400's

Today is sunday, and as such is normally a rest day. However, lately I've been playing around with adding some light, "weightlifter cardio" on this day. Today, however, I did something a little more extreme - I ran a few 400 meter intervals. 

This random dude has a random video about 400's... Don't know if what he's saying is worth listening to haha but he does look pretty jacked and ripped up. 

My best 400 time ever is 1:06. That's when I was in good running shape - my mile time was sub- 6 mins, and i weighed about 170 instead of the 195 that I weigh now. Today, as I went to the track to do my light cardio, I started wondering how my time for a 400 would be - I haven't legitimately run one in over a year and a half (I have barely run at all in that time), so I figured I might give it a shot. I started with an easier 400 to start, running with moderate intensity. My form is much better now, and running feels very smooth, but even at moderate intensity that 400 was tough. I would say my pace was about 1:30-1:40, and I was feeling it by the end. I rested, warmed up, then ran a second 400, this time for time. I think I may have paced myself a little too much in the beginning, but overall it was a pretty all-out effort, and I came in at 1:14 - 8 seconds behind my best time ever. Considering I haven't really run in well over a year, I was PRETTY happy with that time. It goes to show how important strength training is. 

What I was NOT happy with was how I felt after the 400. Now, granted, 400 meters is one of the most horrible distances to run - but I wasn't recovered for at LEAST 20 minutes after that run. My heart rate was up, all my things hurt, and I was exhausted. Only sitting, completely motionless, helped. 

SO, I think that for these next 12 weeks, I'm going to dedicate sundays to getting my 400 time down to where it used to be (I want to hit 1:05 before summers up, if I can). I don't want to dedicate to much time or effort to it, because I don't want to hurt my strength training at all - in fact, if at any point I feel like this is hurting my performance on monday, I will cease and desist immediately. However, this is the tentative plan: run 2 400 meter sprints every sunday - one on a set pace (I'll probably start at 1:30, then once that feels solid move it down by 3-5 seconds a time), and then the second as a max effort, all-out run. I think limiting my workout to 2 400's only should be easy to recover from and won't hinder my strength gains at all, but should still go a LONG way towards improving both my 400 time AND my work capacity/ability to recover. Without ANY running, I still had a solid time, so just adding a few intervals in once a week should do wonders. Plus, I'll treat these workouts as I treat arm day and strongman day - absolutely worth doing when I have time/feel okay, but my more serious workouts will ALWAYS take precedence.  That way, I can work towards this goal without negatively impacting any of my strength goals. Which are most important. 

Running. Yeah.