Well, the holiday weekend marks the unofficial kick-off of Summer, and talk of speed work seems to be everywhere! The Running Laminator has a great post comparing the benefits of intervals and tempo runs for distance runners. Nitmos has launched his 2nd annual Summer of Speed (SOS2). And the June issue of Runner’s World has a good, basic spread about all things track related. It makes me miss my glory days of being my high school’s illustrious 2nd best 800 and 1500 meter runner! Quite the claim to fame, right?? (The only race I ever won was at the end of my sophomore season. It was me versus one other girl in the 800, and I beat her by half a lap. Track wasn’t very big in my county…)
Last week I questioned whether it was too early for me to incorporate some speed work into my runs. After a bit of research on the internets, I’ve decided it’s probably best to put it on hold for now. I found a great Q&A page on the DC Road Runners website that addressed some of my questions. It recommends having a base of about 25 miles per week before jumping into the faster stuff. That’s my mileage goal right now anyway, so it makes sense to wait. What I will be doing, though, is sticking with hillier routes for my shorter runs, to keep building strength in my legs.
It’s funny that I’m reading all this stuff about speed when what I really need to focus on is s-l-o-w-i-n-g down. My mid-week runs are getting faster and faster, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing. I tell myself multiple times during each run to slow down and take it easy, but it doesn’t seem to help. It even feels like I’m trudging along, until I check my splits and see that I’m still at the same pace or faster. So here’s a ridiculous question: how do you slow down?? I don’t want to reduce my turnover rate (the number of steps I take per minute). That means I need to take smaller steps, right? But it already feels like I’m tiptoeing along as it is! (Sigh.) I’ll get the hang of pacing one of these days…
…hopefully tomorrow. I’ve got 7 miles on the schedule in the morning, and I will be trying hard to hold down a 10:30-11 minute pace. Maybe the oppressive humidity will help with that – yuck.
Happy holiday weekend, everyone!
2 months ago
3 comments:
slower is always better except in a race...!
Hey NC Kate! Glad you commented!
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Thanks!
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