I've told the story before on this blog about my many failed attempts to follow a training plan. I've rationalized it as a stubborn streak, a need for independence, or that following a set plan would ruin my very basic love of running for the sake of running.
Well, I finally figured out how to get me to follow a training plan:
Make someone I run with follow one.
And this is the story of how my friend Jen tricked me in to doing speed work.
Well, I finally figured out how to get me to follow a training plan:
Make someone I run with follow one.
And this is the story of how my friend Jen tricked me in to doing speed work.
So my friend Jen has been training for the Oak Barrel half marathon coming up the first weekend in April. it's a pretty big race around here in Middle Tennessee, with one infamous hill to climb in the middle.
In order to be at her best, Jen started following a training program a few months ago, and as Jen and I run together pretty often, her training runs became my training runs. And on Thursdays, we do speed.
*Side Note: Jen claims it's only every other Thursday, but it feels like it's every single week, I swear to you. Maybe the memory of speed work just lingers though.
So we've been doing intervals on our Thursday nights. It started out harmless enough, with the pretense of doing eight sets of alternating quarter mile speed and recovery. I will readily admit, we pushed too hard that first week. Our half mile warm up was too fast and in a move that can only be blamed on pride (as a group of much faster runners had joined our run club that evening), we sprinted like Usain Bolt for the first couple quarter miles.
Did I mention the route that night was the hilly route? How is it that we manage to time every quarter mile exactly so that it was uphill the entire way?!?! It felt like that old joke about a guy who walked to school, uphill, in the snow, both ways.
In order to be at her best, Jen started following a training program a few months ago, and as Jen and I run together pretty often, her training runs became my training runs. And on Thursdays, we do speed.
*Side Note: Jen claims it's only every other Thursday, but it feels like it's every single week, I swear to you. Maybe the memory of speed work just lingers though.
So we've been doing intervals on our Thursday nights. It started out harmless enough, with the pretense of doing eight sets of alternating quarter mile speed and recovery. I will readily admit, we pushed too hard that first week. Our half mile warm up was too fast and in a move that can only be blamed on pride (as a group of much faster runners had joined our run club that evening), we sprinted like Usain Bolt for the first couple quarter miles.
Did I mention the route that night was the hilly route? How is it that we manage to time every quarter mile exactly so that it was uphill the entire way?!?! It felt like that old joke about a guy who walked to school, uphill, in the snow, both ways.
I've never been a runner who's focus is "getting faster." My only goals have mostly been distance related. Running further impresses more than running faster has and probably always will.
Sure, I've set arbitrary goals related to time for myself (Like a sub 60 min 10k or a sub 25 min 5k) but I've never finished a race and been upset if I didn't reach that goal, because I've never specifically trained for speed.
I've been told on numerous occassions that hills are simply "speed work in disguise" and have mostly relied on that, along with the theory that if I can maintain a certain pace for a long distance, my body can handle being pushed faster over shorter distances. Plus, with Rory dragging me around, she's forced me to run faster than I would comfortably run on my own. Speed was always something that just "happened."
ANYWAYS - The great debate last night, as Jen and I completed TEN (Yes, ten of them, in the rain) sets of quarter mile intervals, was this:
Sure, I've set arbitrary goals related to time for myself (Like a sub 60 min 10k or a sub 25 min 5k) but I've never finished a race and been upset if I didn't reach that goal, because I've never specifically trained for speed.
I've been told on numerous occassions that hills are simply "speed work in disguise" and have mostly relied on that, along with the theory that if I can maintain a certain pace for a long distance, my body can handle being pushed faster over shorter distances. Plus, with Rory dragging me around, she's forced me to run faster than I would comfortably run on my own. Speed was always something that just "happened."
ANYWAYS - The great debate last night, as Jen and I completed TEN (Yes, ten of them, in the rain) sets of quarter mile intervals, was this:
Is it better to run faster sprints and walk during recovery or to run slower sprints with a jog in between?
Now I'm not saying that our sprints would INTENTIONALLY be slower if we jogged during recovery, but that the additional exertion would naturally mean less and less speed as the intervals went on. With a walking recovery, we can potentially reach much faster speeds during the sprinting portion.
A quick poll of the twittersphere shows opinions vary and the purpose of the speed work can often play in to what is best for you. As you can see on the graph of our speeds form last night's route, Jen and I opted for the walking in between version of speed work. there was a marginal drop off in over all top speed, but you can see we hit some fast work in there, as at one point we reached a speed of 6:40 minutes per mile.
Not too shabby for someone who has never claimed to be fast!
Thankfully, Jen's marathon is coming up soon, so speed work every (I SWEAR!) Thursday will be coming to an end, although Jen and I did decide that we would perhaps still continue to throw it in every now and then just to mix things up.
So what are your thoughts?
Faster and slower?
Moderate for both?
Speed work is stupid and just don't do it at all?
Lemme know by tweeting at me or commenting below!
Not too shabby for someone who has never claimed to be fast!
Thankfully, Jen's marathon is coming up soon, so speed work every (I SWEAR!) Thursday will be coming to an end, although Jen and I did decide that we would perhaps still continue to throw it in every now and then just to mix things up.
So what are your thoughts?
Faster and slower?
Moderate for both?
Speed work is stupid and just don't do it at all?
Lemme know by tweeting at me or commenting below!