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June 25, 2007
Speed: Where Art Thou?
I vaguely recall hearing a popular running line (in reference to what, I cannot remember): "no need for speed." Maybe it was referring to the Galloway walk-a-marathon program, but I need some speed. I was born with one fast-twitch muscle fiber that has now been hijacked by the slow-twicthers . . . people actually laugh at me when I try to run fast. In fact, on Wednesday I tweaked my hamstring trying - key word is trying - to run fast. I completely over-strided and felt like an idiot.
I have no speed. Zip. Zilch. My lack of speed killed me in a 10K on Saturday. My legs have bounced back extremely fast from the half, but I also rested on Monday and Tuesday, ran 6 on Wednesday, 10.5 on Thursday, 2 on Friday, raced on Saturday, and 10.5 on Sunday. But back to my lack of speed: so H. and I decided that I would race the next 2 weekends and take advantage of the fitness I gained going into the half. It's nice to reap the rewards and drown out some of my soft PRs and wash them completely from my PR record book :)
Our goal plan was to go out at 6:00, hit 2 in 12:10, roll the next four in 6:15 and then speed home in 6:00 the final .2. Sounds totally doable. The result would have been 38:17. What did I do? I went out in 6:10, but by mile 2, I discovered that I had, indeed, gone out in 6:00. I passed 2 in 11:57 so right away I knew the markers were off. I passed three in 18 something, 4 in 24:40, 5 in 31:05, 6 in 37 something and came home in 38:45. Something happened around mile 4. Wait! I know what it was: I completely zoned out and fell into half marathon pace.
Logistically, the race was a little challenging because we ran it on a crowded lakefront path and I spent most of miles 3-6 passing 5K runners and marathon training groups. I also took a wrong turn before mile 6 and had to back-track. That was worth a small chunk of change. BUT, no excuses. Somewhere in the race, I decided it was a lovely idea to take a nap.
I am pretty sure that my half marathon pace and my 10K pace should be more than 8 seconds apart per mile . . . but I'm not complaining. 38:45 wipes out my old PR . . . but it also leaves me hungry. When I finished the race, my dad called me and he asked me how I was feeling. My answer: "I didn't run hard enough."
I need to learn to push the limit even more and dip into the unknown territory of the uncomfortable. There's a long road ahead to October . . . so I have some time to get acquainted with "uncomfortable" (which suddenly became a noun).
I am racing an 8K next weekend and then we are shutting it down until the Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon in August. Real training starts Monday :)
Posted by bridget at June 25, 2007 5:58 PM
Comments
Well 38:45 doesn't sound too bad to me!! :) It's nice to know that even when you don't have the most perfect race ever you still have a PR - great sign of things to come! Congrats Bridget!
Posted by: Beth at June 26, 2007 4:57 PM
bridget, check out with H. about this speed idea.
Suggest you don't over-stride but do just the opposite and work on high revs. In fact, whenever you want to go faster, shorten your stride (even significantly) and then increase revs. Then work on keeping same revs and gradually, very gradually increase stride length. May still feel idiotic at the beginning, especially if you have longish legs and a longing to feel like a springbok, but as it turns out it is more efficient and less likely to be a cause of injury.
Admittedly, you don't get that Juantorena sense of acceleration, but it is useless to power into an overstride, risk injury and ultimately not obtain the speed goal as legs not used to the max high revs you have in you ... which really take some concentration and midsection focussing to achieve... Still nice PR. You could easily drop another minute just on high-revving alone :-)
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at June 27, 2007 11:38 AM