Speed work...it kills, but in a good way. Last night I added some speed work to my run. This is the first time I had tried doing speed work and it was an interesting experience.
I am not fast, and I don't pretend to be. As I said in my race recap, I was super excited to finish the Monument 10K with an average pace of just under 11:30. I may never be truly fast, but I would like to get faster. It was not that long ago that it took everything I had to keep a 13 minute mile pace.
I know that to be fast, you have to train fast and I finally feel confident enough in my running to bring some speed work into my training. I had originally planned on starting doing speed work last week, but since I was sick and having a hard time breathing it was probably not the smartest thing to try.
For my first time really focusing on picking up the pace, I decided doing short, fast sprints was the way to go. After running a mile warm-up at a comfortable pace, I did 15-.10 mile sprints with 1 minute of recovery. The first 14 went really well, then I got a cramp in my side on the last one. I was aiming for anything under about 9:30 per mile, and was faster than that for all but the last one. For my first time playing with speed work, I'll take it.
Today I am sore, but in a good way. I know I worked hard and I haven't been sore from running in a while. I spent some quality time with my foam roller tonight.
Right now my goal is to incorporate one speed workout a week. I am liking the short sprints, but thinking that I may try some slightly longer distances in the upcoming weeks. Build up my speed over slightly longer distances. What are your favorite speed workouts?
