Speedwork - 4.5 miles total

Too hot to run outside. At least I thought so. Found out it was only in the mid-70s when I hit the gym, which would have been warm-ish-ly perfect. Oh, well, since I was planning on doing speedwork it was just easier to do it on the treadmill, rather than head out to the track.

Today, unusually, I wore my Fila running flats rather than the Brooks. I know, it's somewhat silly for a recreational 9:00-10:00 pace runner to be wearing go-faster shoes but it's more about putting me in the mental space to go faster, rather than eking out some tiny advantage over all the other elite runners. Plus, they're blind-a-fly-yellow and that's just fun, dammit.

The plan was: 4:00 at a "fast" speed, with a 2:00 slower speed (walking or jogging, since I haven't done speedwork in a while), repeated four times, for a total of 24 minutes of workout. That workout is sandwiched in between one mile slow-ish warmups and cooldowns.

I warmed up with a brisk walk for a minute or two, then adjusted it for a 10:00 pace. After 10 full minutes I wasn't at a mile so I finished the mile at about a 9:00 pace.

After getting some water, I was ready to begin. I guess. Have I mentioned I hate speedwork?

First fast section was run at an 8:34 pace (exactly 7.0 miles per hour). It went well but I became worried about doing that three more times. I slowed for the 2:00 section to a brisk walk for 30 seconds and then went to a 10:31 jog.

Second fast section was at the same pace and felt much harder to maintain. I was pouring sweat. I walked for a minute, then jogged for a minute, then got some more water.

Third fast section was run at an 8:57 pace (6.7 miles per hour), except for the last minute when I pushed it back up to 8:34. I stopped to get water, walked for the full 2:00 slow section... then walked another minute... another minute... got some more water... ugh.

Fourth fast section was run at an 8:57 pace... but only for two minutes. Legs felt sluggish and slow. I called those two minutes plus the preceding 2:00 my full 4:00 "fast" segment, feeling fully guilty for it, and then finished out my 2:00 "slow" section with about half walking and half 10:30 jogging.

Total distance covered during this part of the workout was 2.31 miles.

After a long-ish break in the bathroom and getting water, I came back to do my full mile cooldown, battling the inner Voice almost the entire time, but completing it. Started at 10:00 pace, slowed at about the halfway point to 10:31. When I had done that for 10 minutes, I had gone about 0.9 miles, so I pushed the pace up to 8:57 to finish off the mile briskly. Hard. Did I mention the hard? Ugh.

But I did do it. And if I keep including speedwork drills once a week or so I will improve. It's only a matter of doing it. These are just as important as the long runs and help me build up a faster turnover (which is the running term for how often my feet hit the ground) which is the one component of speed I can improve (the other is stride length and there's not much I can do about that).