The Beauty of Speed*

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel running last night (Thursday) given that I had just done my long run on Wednesday morning. All these changes make me nervous. But, these days I'm feeling committed to, at the very least, getting in some kind of run three to four times a week.

After work, I headed to the gym - I wasn't even going to pretend to run outside at 6:30 when the temps were still in the 90s. I know that the Philly Runners meet at the Art Museum at 6:30 on Thursdays and more power to them... not for me.

As I've said in earlier posts, I'm just starting to learn about the different running lingo. I've heard terms thrown around here and there over the years I've run, but have never applied them to myself. I've read and heard people talk about doing "intervals", "fartleks", "tempo runs", and the like, but never felt like I was a runner in that sense of the word. I don't even know what my tempo pace would be (one article I looked at said that tempo pace is approximately 15 to 30 seconds per mile slower than 10K race pace... which would be fine if I knew what my 10k race pace was). When people talk about doing part of their run at 10k pace or doing a tempo run, I usually think, "I have three speeds... stop, walk, and run." As I've been coming out of my little turtle shell more and more, I'm beginning to think/realize that these funny little terms can mean something to me too... though I'm not sure what yet.

So, to make a long post short (too late, I know), I decided to try to push myself a bit on this treaddy workout. I wasn't in the mood to simulate a track workout with 400 intervals, as I probably should have, so I just figured I'd pick up the pace. Warmed up for a mile or so and then increased the pace steadily until I was running around 7.1mph for a few miles... a bit faster or slower here and there depending on what song was on the iPod... so maybe this was more of an iFartlek (credit: Ian) than a tempo run, but either way, I pushed myself to run faster for a longer distance than is usual for me.... and I felt pretty darn good.

Overall, I did 5.5 miles in 47:15.

* A Tori song off her latest album.