Intervals - looking back on the outdoor oval

Track intervals once a week are usually a staple in my training. Life has been complicated with plenty of excuses, traffic, injuries, and distractions to keep me away from running circles. I have found a steady group and consistency by doing intervals on the track with the Somerville Road Runners under the guidance of Joe O'Leary a few years ago. Tonight, I ran 5 X 1 mile (actually 1600m) with a 60 second rest in between each at Tufts University. I started running the miles at Threshold pace but picked up the pace for the last three intervals. My splits are below.

5:52, 5:42, 5:34, 5:28, 5:27

It got me thinking about the Tuesday night intervals that I have embarked on since the late 1990's. Intervals under Tom Derderian and the Greater Boston Track Club at MIT were routine from tail end of my college years (1996/1997) until the fall of 2003. When I started running with CMS in 2004, regular track intervals became inconsistent during the summer. However, we had a small group (mostly with Joe Shairs) that would do some intervals at Beverly High and then to a larger group (dare I say critical mass) at Gordon College. Our group, mostly CMS folks, were self coached and everyone was of similar fitness. I was curious so I picked up the oldest running log that I could find in my office at home - 2006 (I have some from college in a box somewhere). I opened up to August 8. I ran 4 X 1 mile (1600m) at Gordon College with 800m rest. My splits are below.

5:17, 5:18, 5:20, 5:12

My notes indicated that the group was looking to run 5:20's. Patrick Rich, Ben Strain, Dan Verrington, and Joe Shairs were the band of brothers on the oval that night six years ago. No doubt, our warm up and cool down were to cross the street and loop through the quad and around the pond and back. It is only fitting that Patrick is now the Gordon College head coach for all running programs. Some day, I want to go back to a running log from 1997. I am certain that I had mile repeat workouts with each mile under five minutes. Ah, those were the days......