Attempt At Speed Work

Although I love lists, being organized and having a plan, for some reason this doesn't translate into following a training plan. I don't know why. You would think it would be a given that I would be excited to decide on a race and a training plan for said race, write down the components and then follow through on the workouts. But, I just can't do it. Yes, I want to do well in the races I sign up for. But when it comes time to train, I just want to run. I don't want to be burdened by speed work, or specific splits, or tempo runs, or becoming a slave to a training plan that does not in any way take into account the rest of my life. Let's face it - as it is for everyone, I'm sure - some days it is just a struggle to get out the door, and so the prospect of conforming to and stressing about following a training plan just doesn't work for me. Yes, I do look at various training plans and make notes in my training log of what I think I *should* be doing on any given day and during any given week leading up to a race. But it's rare that I actually manage to run the set miles that I've written down. I can't decide if this is a good thing, meaning I'm willing to be flexible and cut myself some slack, or if it means that I have never been able to fully commit to training, and therefore have not yet reached my true potential. Somehow I think it's a bit of both.

Anyway... all of this leads me to this morning's run, and the fact that on February 6th, I will be running the 2011 Mid Winter Classic. In late December, registration for the race was filling up fast. Ryan had decided he wasn't going to race it, since he already has a number of snowshoe races on the calendar, so it was my race to run if I wanted. I must have been having a good day, or been a bit delirious, because I looked at my time from 2009 and decided, almost spur of the moment, that I should sign up for the race and attempt to beat my 2009 time of 1:16:27. What was I thinking? I have done no speed work to speak of in years, nor done any road racing since that race. I am training for a 50k in March, and have been logging most of my recent miles on snow, meaning they've been slow miles. Of course, I don't *need* to beat my time from 2009, but I'd like to. And to do that, if my math is correct, I need to average faster than 7:38s.

So, today, after I dropped Sam off at daycare, I headed over to the bike path, with the idea of doing a pace workout. Ryan had suggested that I go out and run 7 miles at 7:30 pace to see if I could do it. I didn't have quite enough time for that, but I figured I would go and attempt to run 5 miles at a "fast" pace. The bike path has the benefit of being an even, measured surface away from traffic. It is typically pretty well cleared, although this morning it was obvious that we've been having a cold and snowy January, as there were a number of stretches of frozen mush/snow/ice between the stretches of dry pavement. It was chilly out, but bright and sunny, with no wind. My 282s were gripping well, and in fact, I only slipped twice, right near the bridge over the on-ramp to Rt. 1 later in the run. I did have to slow down ever so slightly around 1.5 miles and 3.0 miles, where a large puddle had formed and frozen over, but overall, I didn't feel too hampered by the conditions, as the surface was pretty tacky. I started out at what felt like a reasonable, but relatively quick pace, and both miles 1 and 2 were below 8 minute pace, but not quite as fast as I might have wanted. Mile 3 was 7:37, mile 4 was 7:17 and the last mile was 7:20. I was definitely working by the last mile. Final time for 5.0 miles was 37:53. Now, the question remains: could I run 37:53 for another 5 miles? I guess we'll find out next Sunday!