Sometimes directly after a 28-30 second 200 meter repeat when my heart is pounding and the nausea approaches rapidly, I ask myself as I walk or sloooowly plod around the curve, “Why the heck do you want to try and run a faster mile?” And for the next 30 seconds I am nearly convinced that mile training sucks and I’ll just go back to training only for 50K to 50 mile events. But then 30 seconds later I’m running another 200 meter repeat and loving the speed…until about the last 15 meters when the cycle and questions start over again. Other times, when I have some company on the repeats, none of those questions pop up, and 28 seconds feels great. Its an odd thing. This morning I was able to start out the first couple 200′s with Patrick Hunt over at Fairview. That was motivating enough to get me started right out the gate at 28′s. Then I was on my own for the next 10 of them. Halfway through, 90 seconds was still not quite enough recovery, and mentally I was caving in a bit as well. Then I was able to jump in with Kenyon Newman and Bob on the last few, and I was right back to running 28′s. Granted, I had a little more recovery between the last few. But it was odd that at that point I felt like I could have done a few more at 28 whereas earlier I was falling off pace hard. Here were my splits for the day. 4 X 100 to get moving: 19, 19, 18, 15 14 X 200: 28, 29, 28, 29, 31, 30, 29, 32, 32, 32, 33, 31, 28, 28 Felt good to get a decent set of fast running in the legs. Next up is a saturday session of 400′s with some 200′s to finish off. I’m shooting for 69-70 second quarters and will see how many of those I can hold. My last set of 400′s I was averaging 73′s a couple weeks ago, so its going to be a bit of a stretch I think. But I’m going to give it a shot. Because if I’m going to come anywhere close to a 4:40 at the pearl street mile in a couple weeks I’m going to need to be able to hold the pace for a set of 400′s. So how is this all going to help me run a 50 miler in steamboat in september you ask? I have no idea. But I find myself drawn to speed work at this point. At least I’m still getting in a 15-20+ mile run in each week. I see the 50 miler as a fun day running through the mountains. I guess I’m not all that ambitious about running hard and fast at that distance at this point. I really just want to complete a 50 miler. And after last saturday when I bailed on my planned 24 mile route after only 16.5 miles of running in the heat, it makes me wonder a bit about that. But that was in 90 degrees so I guess I can’t beat myself up too bad. The heat was getting brutal.
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