Pain Is Temporary

You know the saying, "Pain is temporary, pride is forever." I am constantly wondering exactly how much pain must one endure to achieve this so called pride? I have experienced a few bumps and bruises during my training for my race. But how many more bumps and bruises will come about? Thankfully, there aren't any weddings any time soon so the need to wear strappy sandals is out. whew!

I have been training with Jil for this race and two weeks ago we started incorporating speedwork into our program. I think it actually might be helping us out. Of course, while running these blasted things I am thinking that there's no need for a 1/2 marathoner to "sprint". haha. But we did our second week of speedwork and added 2 more sprint laps, or an additional mile if you include the recovery laps. Overall I am very impressed with our ability to be consistent. btw....the intervals are 400 m.

Here's what we did:
1/2 mile warmup - 4:58
Sprint 1 - 1:53
Rest 1 - 2:40
Sprint 2 - 1:53
Rest 2 - 2:45
Sprint 3 - 1:54
Rest 3 - 3:00
Sprint 4 - 1:59
Rest 4 - 2:57
Sprint 5 - 1:52
Rest 5 - 3:01
Sprint 6 - 2:00
Rest 6 - 3:07
Cool down mile 9:57

This week was not as consistant as the previous week....but we were also under a wind advisory for this speedwork. I would easily assume that our times would closely reflect those of the first.

Anyhow, so I mentioned that this speedwork seems to be helping out, and this is why I think so. Today I had to 6 miles. (Jil is partying it up in Savannah for St. Patty's day...geesh!!) Since I ran it by myself, I chose to run at the gym on their track. The reason why I like to run there is because it is a very controlled environment. (don't have to worry about the weather, it's flat, and counting the laps is easy.) It takes 9 laps to make a mile and I try to run each lap between 1 min and 1:10. For some reason I felt good today. Normally, I dread running at first, I feel awkward, everything is bouncing out of control (haha)....but today was different. My goal for running the 6 miles was 60 mins. That should be easy enough, 10 min miles....no biggie. So here's what I did my 6 miles in:

mile 1 - 9:35
mile 2 - 9:22
mile 3 - 9:27
mile 4 - 9:20*
mile 5 - 9:20*
mile 6 - 9:25

*i can't remember these splits, but my total running time was only 56:48. I know these aren't my ideal mile splits, but this was the first time doing this many miles since high school so I am not gonna complain! I am actually quite excited about it! And I think it's because of the speedwork. Here's where my excitement grows even more.....mile splits of 9:22 will result in a 1/2 marathon time of 2:02:42. So, if I can shave off a few more seconds, like 9:02, then a sub-2hr race might occur. hmmmmm........