Speed-work FAIL

So I'm about to start this 10-week half-marathon training plan for the Albany Half-Marathon on 10/10/10 and have been tinkering around with the workouts ahead of schedule to see what the chances are of me maintaining my goal of 1:45. The plan has you running only 3 times a week, but then I can use the other days to get on the bike and maintain strength around my knees. Here's what it looks like:

1. Speedwork - work at increasing comfort running at higher speeds. Distances include 400s, 800s and 1600s with time-cuts specific to each.
2. Tempo Run - half-marathon pace minus 15 seconds per mile. You end up with short to medium distanced runs (3-8 miles)
3. Long Run - these have you running your half-marathon pace + 30 seconds per mile. The idea, I suppose, is to build endurance and raise your distance threshold. (6-12 miles)

Yesterday was speed-work. According to the Runner's World workout, I was to perform 4 x 400s sandwiched between a decent warm-up and cool-down and recovery jogs in between each. For a 1:45 half-marathon, my pace is roughly 8:00min/miles on the button. When doing speed-work, I'm supposed to average 101.25 seconds per 400m, as opposed to the 120sec/400m HMP. I translated the 101.25 seconds to be 1 minute, 41 seconds, which I incorrectly remembered during the run as 7:41 (oops, misread the 1) and thought I just had to beat a 7:41min/mile average during the 400m sprints.

HAH! I wish!

There's a chin-line in there somewhere.

It turns out that in fact I would have had to beat a 6:45min/mile average. Crrraapppppp. The sprints were tough, but I know I could've pulled something faster out of my hat. In the end, I was only about 11 seconds slow on each 400m, which is a sizeable difference, yes, but only because I didn't know I was supposed to be going quicker. Rats!

Empire State Plaza, Post-run

On the positive side of things, my training program does not start in earnest until next week so this mishap is perhaps comparable to driving your race-car to the starting line but forgetting to fully release the parking break.