Topics of the Day: Speed Work and Keeping Up with the Halls

My Peter Pan Syndrome is well documented.  

On the night of my 29th birthday, I explained to my friends that I never thought I was going to make it to 30.  This revelation was upsetting to my friends, but it was really matter of fact to me.  

It isn't that I necessarily thought I was going to die, in fact I haven't really thought about that at all  (nor do I want to.)   Rather I just never imaged myself as someone older than 30.

What does this have to do with running?  Well I am older than 31 now, and I am getting slower.

Why?  Part of it is that I am working more and running less, but a bigger part is I am just getting slower (read: not as fast as I was in college).  Well I will not go quietly into the "waddle on" running crew.  Thus, speedwork is the topic of the day.

Looking back at my racing results, the point at which I was fastest at distance was 2002.  I ran my best times in both the 10 mile and the marathon that year.  What was the difference?  I was running 6 days a week and consistently doing track work.  At the time I was training for the marathon, and had read in Runner's World about Yasso 800s.  Which is a great workout that is running half mile repeats at the time you expect to run the marathon (read the article for greater detail).  

Since I have moved to Chicago my workouts, and especially my speedwork, have not been as consistent, and it shows in my race results.

This summer I am turning a new page.  That is one of the reasons why running a 5k in 20 minutes is one of my goals.  In addition, I need to get faster for my triathlons, when I am only running 6.2 miles.   I am committed to doing the time on the track.

So last Thursday night I joined the Chicago Tri Club in the first track workout session of the season.  They hold them every Thursday at 7 at the North Park Track.  The track is actually very nice, and the group is great too.  I immediately jumped in with the "faster" runners (because when running with others, I never say no to my ego).  As it turned out, I could hang with some of them.  We were only doing 8 200s, so the workout was short, but moving forward they are going to split it into two groups doing different workouts (one long, and one short).  It was fun to be on the track with others again.  Kind of like high school track, which I always enjoyed.

So I hope to continue this commitment to doing the track work.  I am hoping it leads to a fitter me, and blazing times!

Speaking of Blazing Times and Speedwork...

One would be hard pressed to find a faster running couple than Ryan and Sara Hall.  May God help the Kenyans if these two ever have kids...  actually God may need to help the Kenyans or anyone else in the world if they plan on beating the Halls in Beijing.  

You want freaky fast?  Don't go to Jimmy John's, just watch Ryan Hall's Olympic Trials marathon in NYC last November.  He crushed the field running in 2:09 (on a hilly central park course).  Check out this Runners' World article on Ryan Hall just before he smoked everyone at the US Olympic Trials in the Marathon.  It has great stories about his first long run (15 miles at a very young age), and how he was doing 10 mile tempo runs with college teams when he was n high school.  Sick.

This week in the New York Times, there was a great article about doing races at different distance and incorporating speedwork into training regimens.  It specifically talked about how Sara Hall has come to run the mile and her training for the Olympic Trials.  

Today's Run:

Tapering 6.19 miles with CARA Training group (last one for the winter session, everyone is racing next week!).   49:51, 8:03 minute/mile