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I May Be A Believer After All…

February 21, 2011 by Kristy 4 Comments

2/21/11

6 miles speed

I get nervous every time I do speed work.  I worry that I won’t hit my splits and that I’ll never get faster.  I tell myself that I’m built for endurance, NOT speed.  I’ve said numerous times that I was on the fence as to whether speed work makes a difference.  I’m giving it a real, fair try this training cycle to see what happens.  In the past, speed work has been very taxing on my body.  I tend to take longer to recover and often my tempo and long runs suffer because of it.  I was just reading in Brad Hudson’s Run Faster that runners whose strength is speed generally recover faster from speed work and runners whose strength is endurance (me!) recover faster from longer runs.  The converse is also true which explains my prolonged recovery after speed work and my speedy recovery after 20-milers.

Today’s speed work called for 6×800 at 3:33 (7:06 pace).  I did 5×800 (the 6th one so wasn’t happening…I was exhausted).  My spilts:  3:34, 3:34, 3:33, 3:32, 3:32!  Woohoo!  Why was I so happy?  Let me explain:

1.  I have never done 800s this fast before.  I generally hover around the 3:40 range.  I was surprised I was so consistent too.

2.  For the past 7 weeks, I’ve been doing speed work on the treadmill because of the weather.  Today I went to the track (yeah!) but I was concerned about my ability to adequately pace myself.  It’s so much easier on the treadmill – just set the pace and stick to it.  The track is much harder.

3.  I did a 20-miler 2 days ago!  Now I’m wondering what my splits would be with fresh, rested legs!

So maybe all this speed nonsense is helping?!  Could it be that I’m a believer in speed work?  Nine more weeks of speed work plus a little bit of confidence in myself and who knows what’ll happen?

I’ll leave you with this picture from SF (technically Stinson Beach, CA).  This is how I felt after my run today…

Can you tell I was a cheerleader?

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 20 miler, speed work, track, treadmill

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. runninfromthelaw says

    February 21, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    Love the picture!

    Nice job on the pace for the intervals. I really like them because they break up the routine of marathon training. I also think they make marathon pace feel so slow and easy (relatively). Now recover!

    Reply
  2. Jess @ Blonde Ponytail says

    February 22, 2011 at 5:11 pm

    Kristy! It will be fun to follow your journey using the RLRF approach!! When is your marathon? I am in week 12 of the plan with my marathon on 5/14.

    FAB job on the 800’s! Love the enthusiastic pic!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Check Me Out! « Run The Long Road says:
    February 23, 2011 at 9:32 am

    […] I May Be A Believer After All… […]

    Reply
  2. Week 8 Recap « Run The Long Road says:
    February 27, 2011 at 9:57 am

    […] Marathon Week 8 Recap MON:  6 miles speed (and I became a believer in speed work) TUE:  rest WED:  8 miles tempo THU:  13 miles long FRI:  yoga SAT:  rest […]

    Reply

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