Wed 02/11 – Speed work is hard

Wed 02/11 – Speed work is hard

Speed work is hard. Maybe that’s why its not good to do it all the time. Myself, I do it as much as I can, which is to say, as much as my body will let me. Today, it didn’t. The combination of a few consecutive weeks of speed work, plus 25 milers on back to back weekends did not treat me very well, so I cut my session of 6x800s short today. The bigger picture is Hagg Lake next Saturday, so I didn’t feel bad about easing off. Sometimes running (for me at least) is mostly about staying healthy and injury free. I should know, my first marathon (Newport) put me out of commission with shin splints for months. I’m a bit smarter than that now. Rather than get really excited about some race that I want to run fast or that is longer than I’ve ever done before (like Mt Hood in July) and go out and train until I’m hurt, now I’m Mr. gradual progression. The last 3 months of speedwork have seen my 800s drop from 3:20 to 3:00, and my 1600s drop from 6:40 to 6:10. Neither of those time are fast, but relatively speaking, they are faster. That’s the key. In March I’m running a local 10K, 5K and 1 miler, to check and see how these times have changed since the fall.