There Are Bad Times, But That's Ok

So today marked week two of fall speed sessions. Some mornings I am awake before my alarm goes off because I am so ready to run. This morning was not one of those mornings. I wanted to be anywhere but running on a track at 5:45 AM. I knew the warm up and I knew my times, but that didn't keep me from doubting my abilities.

My two mile warm up went well. I averaged about 10 minute miles. But during the entire warm up, I kept questioning myself and my abilities to run a good race in December. That is 2+ months away folks. I wondered if I would be able to beat my first half marathon time from April (I'm competitive with myself, what can I say?). I also thought that my time from April had to be wrong because I feel like right now there is NO way I could sustain 9 minute miles for 13.1 miles right now, how could I have done it in April?

But I really need to accept that my race in April and my race in December are two entirely different races. In fact no two races will ever be the same. So my training methods for each race will be different as well. I didn't do any speed work in April, but I am working on that now.

So back to the work out. The actual speed session itself was 800 meters at a pace I used a chart to find based on my 1 mile time trial from the end of last speed sessions and my most recent 5k. There is a lot of science behind that pace that I am not even going to pretend to know about. All I know is that I needed to run 800 meters in 4:04 and follow it up at 400 meters taking 4:04 to complete the final lap. And then do it 5 times total. Easy enough?

YES! I was amazed how I was completely beat after running a half a mile and then 1/4 mile cool down. It was definitely easier than last weeks workout of mile repeats. So I probably should have done 6 total since I wasn't too exhausted, but I did have to go to work today too.

Overall, I was pretty please with my workout and my abilities. Looking forward to next weeks speed session!