On April 29th, 2012, I ran the New York Road Runners “Run as One” 4 miler in 34:48, at a pace of 8:42/mile.
See?
Today, I did a short tempo run with two miles at 8:49 and it felt hard. Doable, but too hard to maintain for much longer. Ouch.
Mark my words: by the time I get to the NYC Half on March 17th, I want an 8:49 pace for more than 4 miles to feel comfortable again. Heck, more than 2 miles. Seeing as I kicked off #operationsub2, I’ll need to train to hold an average pace of 9:02 for my half marathon to cross the finish line in 1:58:30. That means I have some work to do.
Back in April, I was doing speedwork fairly consistently. I was fresh off an injury, super motivated, and even PR’d in the Brooklyn Half Marathon a few weeks later. Now? Still motivated, but I’ve only been seriously doing speedwork for a couple weeks. I was a complete slacker the past couple months, but my antsy excitement for speedwork is back. Fab! Hopefully it lasts…
Only one (sort of irrelevant) question…where’s the love?! Everyone seems to hate the treadmill, but I couldn’t WAIT to get back on it tonight! Time passes so quickly and it helps me learn to keep a steady pace instead of jumping all over the place. It also helps to not be glancing at my Garmin every 6 seconds as well. Just set the pace and GO.
Sorry for hating on you, Garmin! Also, this is not recent. I did NOT run 26.2 miles today. Just FYI.
If there wasn’t a clock in front me, I would have sworn that the ‘mill was lying to me. It felt like 15 minutes but when all was said and done, I was on the belt for about 45.
Glad SOMEONE agrees with me…thanks Liz!
Backing up: my workout (courtesy of the Runner’s World Smart Coach feature) looked like this:
FOAM ROLL (I love foam rolling at my gym, LifeTime Fitness. They have the most legit foam rollers. I’m always super motivated to foam roll there, but never at home. Go figure.)
1 mile warmup
2 miles at 8:49 (walked for a minute or two in between miles)
1 mile cooldown
FOAM ROLL (Again! Making a point to do this often.)
30 second plank (I’m working my way up, okay?!)
When I got home, Brendan had a delicious dinner ready and waiting for me. What a guy!
Now I just need to work on not eating all the treats in the house when I get home after a speed workout. Seems to be the trend…
Dorothy, you’re not in a Ragnar Relay anymore. That was NOT REAL LIFE.
2 more months to crush 8:49.
Love the treadmill or hate it? Do you do speedwork? What’s your favorite running workout? Tell me, tell me!
You’re totally going to crush that sub2! Guaranteed!
99.99999% of my treadmill runs are of the tempo or HIIT variety. They do make the time seem to go by (a little) quicker. I tried a 5-mile tempo yesterday with miles 2-4 @8:00/mile. HA! I made it through 2 miles before hyperventilating. Oh well, maybe next time!
Thank you so much!!! I’m pumped!! Aweome job on the two miles at 8:00/mile, that’s amazing!! Maybe you were hyperventilating but you still did it
great job!
i am with you, i like doing speedy runs on the treadmill, only way I stay motivated on those things
Same here…it’s much harder to go on a long run on a treadmill. Not even a TV can distract me enough!
I can only do speedwork on the treadmill too! Its the best way to control the pace and transition to and ffrom different speeds. I haven’t had much time for it because of injury
Wish I got into the NYC Half too.. I’ll be cheering!
Oh no!! Hope your injury clears up soon. Strength training and stretching (and rest!) worked for me. Hope to meet you at the NYC Half!!
I love speed work on a treadmill! It’s the only way I can keep up the pace, at least when it’s really cold out and I have trouble breathing. I can recover much quicker inside. I normally prefer the cold, but not for speed since I get a touch of asthma.
Same here – maybe this makes me lazy, but it’s just so much easier when you can manually set the pace you want to run and just keep up, haha. When it’s really cold I can feel it in my lungs too. Not fun!