This morning something awesome happened. Something I never really thought I could do. This morning I conquered my fears, and ran not one, but two, spectacularly sweet sub-7 mile repeats. Yes, that means there was a big ol' 6 in front. A freakin' 6!
Usually I do speed Wednesday mornings, but I slept through it yesterday and today was the only other day to make it up. Yes, I was really tired yesterday, but mostly I think I was afraid. Speed frightens me. Trails frighten me. They both make me want to curl up in a ball and hide. But if I spend my whole life doing that I'll never really know what I'm capable of.
Sometime in the last 36 hours I decided that I wanted to see a 6:xx in my mile repeats in the near future. I did not really expect the "near future" to be this morning, but I thought I could at least get close. All week I have felt slow and sluggish, but for some reason my splits have been getting faster and faster.
When I left my house this morning I was still afraid, still frightened. "Maybe I don't need to do mile repeats. Maybe I can just run some regular miles. No one is forcing me to do this. Why should I have to?" Why should I? I should because it frightens me. It's the same reason I do my laps in the deep end of the swimming pool even though deep water scares me. Because if I don't face my fears, they will eat me alive. Because deep down I know I can conquer them.
I took off for my first repeat and even in 35 degrees I was completely warmed up 0.3 miles in. It felt hard and challenging. I didn't look at my watch at all. I didn't want to know. First mile done: 7:09. Two seconds faster than my fastest repeat last week. Can I do better?
Second repeat hurts like absolute hell. I feel like I'm going terribly slow. I don't look at my watch again. I feel like I want to die. Second mile done: 6:57. How is that possible? Did I really just do that? More importantly, I'm exhausted. How can I possibly do one more?
Even though I cool down between repeats two and three, everything starts hurting again as soon as I start the third. If I thought I wanted to die before, then I don't know what you could call what I'm feeling now. "Who says I need to do three repeats? Maybe I'll just stop at 2.5. Who would know?" I would know. I want to finish. I need to finish. As I'm curling around through my last lap a man and woman begin running ahead of me. I'm surprised when I not only catch up to them, but seem to fly past them as if they are standing still. As I pass I hear the man say to his partner behind me "Wow, she's got a motor on her." I smile. Yes, maybe I do this time. I push just a little bit harder the last 20 feet. My whole body feels as though it will explode into a thousand pieces. It's over. I look at my watch: 6:51.
As sappy as it sounds, it's true: you never know what you are capable of until you try. I don't think I'll ever be one of those sub-6 runners, but at least now I can say for damn sure that I can run a sub-7 and that I conquered my fear.
Next up: trail running.
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| More importantly though, why are my hands bigger than my head? |
Sometime in the last 36 hours I decided that I wanted to see a 6:xx in my mile repeats in the near future. I did not really expect the "near future" to be this morning, but I thought I could at least get close. All week I have felt slow and sluggish, but for some reason my splits have been getting faster and faster.
When I left my house this morning I was still afraid, still frightened. "Maybe I don't need to do mile repeats. Maybe I can just run some regular miles. No one is forcing me to do this. Why should I have to?" Why should I? I should because it frightens me. It's the same reason I do my laps in the deep end of the swimming pool even though deep water scares me. Because if I don't face my fears, they will eat me alive. Because deep down I know I can conquer them.
I took off for my first repeat and even in 35 degrees I was completely warmed up 0.3 miles in. It felt hard and challenging. I didn't look at my watch at all. I didn't want to know. First mile done: 7:09. Two seconds faster than my fastest repeat last week. Can I do better?
Second repeat hurts like absolute hell. I feel like I'm going terribly slow. I don't look at my watch again. I feel like I want to die. Second mile done: 6:57. How is that possible? Did I really just do that? More importantly, I'm exhausted. How can I possibly do one more?
Even though I cool down between repeats two and three, everything starts hurting again as soon as I start the third. If I thought I wanted to die before, then I don't know what you could call what I'm feeling now. "Who says I need to do three repeats? Maybe I'll just stop at 2.5. Who would know?" I would know. I want to finish. I need to finish. As I'm curling around through my last lap a man and woman begin running ahead of me. I'm surprised when I not only catch up to them, but seem to fly past them as if they are standing still. As I pass I hear the man say to his partner behind me "Wow, she's got a motor on her." I smile. Yes, maybe I do this time. I push just a little bit harder the last 20 feet. My whole body feels as though it will explode into a thousand pieces. It's over. I look at my watch: 6:51.
As sappy as it sounds, it's true: you never know what you are capable of until you try. I don't think I'll ever be one of those sub-6 runners, but at least now I can say for damn sure that I can run a sub-7 and that I conquered my fear.
Next up: trail running.
WOW! I am seriously impressed. It hurts like hell to run that fast (I too, have only pulled it off a couple times- it's freaking ROUGH!) Congrats to you for such a kickass workout- it hurts so good, right?
ReplyDeleteHurts soooo good!
DeleteWay to go! Speed work can be intimidating, but it sure is rewarding!
ReplyDeleteWow. That is beyond amazing. I'm positively gleeful when i get a sub-9 mile. :-) Of course, I've never really done much for speedwork, and that's something I definitely would like to change.
ReplyDeleteThat is AWESOME, way to go! I love speed work.
ReplyDeleteYou will LOVE trail running. Running on the trails has made me fall in love with running in a totally different and new way :)
I'll be honest, I follow a training plan for my second half marathon, but as for knowing what I'm doing when it comes to speed work/tempo runs...I'm clueless. I guess I have to hit the books. You'd think I'd know what all these different terms mean by now, but I don't. I've found that Runners World and other stuff I've read assume you already know what a tempo run is or a fartlik. Sigh. :) Found you over at SR. Jessica
ReplyDeleterunningtobeskinny.com
@ Jessica - I went for a good long while without doing any fancy schmancy speed workouts too. I'm still not sure if I know what a tempo run is and mile repeats is about the most complicated that my speed work gets :) Definitely worth the research if you want to get faster though!
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