You want me to run what?!?!

Since starting to work with a coach in July 2015, I've done several workouts that I never would have written into my own schedule.  When I receive my training schedule with these workouts on it, my thoughts go something like this:

"What?  That's crazy."

"That's going to be really hard.  I can't hit those times."

"Where did he get the idea that I could run that?"

"Well, I'll give it a try."

Low and behold, I have hit or exceeded the splits on each of such recommended workouts, so over time I've become less scared of them.  Often I call them "hard, but possible."  However, today's workout terrified me, because 400s have been my nemesis for the past several years (really since high school when I used to like them).  I rarely ran them pre-coach, under the guise that I really didn't need repeats that short to perform well in races from 10K to the marathon, which have been my distances of focus since graduate school.

The workout was 16 x 400, in sets of 4.  200 jog recoveries (1:10 or less) between reps, 400 jog recoveries (2:20 or less) between sets.  My goal time range was 1:25-1:27, which is 5:40-5:48 pace.  With warm-up and cool-down, I would have 10 miles total.  The one thing I did like about this workout was that it was much preferred over the standard 10 mile "long" run done one week before a marathon (which makes me feel like I am not doing anything).

Last night, I was texting my long run/marathon partner about the workout and said things like, "I'm scared of this workout", "That is way too many repeats, even though they are slower than usual", and "Worst case scenario, if I can't hit the splits I'll just finish off the mileage at base pace."  But then I lightened up and said, "Let's just get out there and do it."  Although, I said that we had to do them at 1:27 instead of 1:25 at the beginning, ha ha!

And we got out there and did it!  The pace was brisk, but not all-out, and the reps clipped by quickly. 

My splits were:
1:26, 1:26, 1:25, 1:25
1:26, 1:26, 1:25, 1:25
1:26, 1:26, 1:25, 1:25
1:25, 1:26, 1:24, 1:23

I finished not feeling that spent.  It was a good feeling!  In the not-so-distant past, I couldn't have run 8 400s at 1:25 all-out, so this was a good confidence boost.  My Saturday running partner and I took turns leading them and that helped the workout go by quickly too.  We are quite evenly matched and are running Dallas together as well - and our goal time would make a nice PR for each of us.

Now the true taper madness begins!  I have a "final tune up" fast-ish 2 miles next week, but that's pretty much it; and no runs over 6 miles.  I feel pretty good about Dallas and my time goals.  At this point I'll focus on getting extra sleep, eating quality nutrition, and not obsessing too much (if that is possible).