I'm quite possibly the most impatient yogini/yogi that I know! I've been this way since I was a child... I have memories of 'Patience is a virtue, Suzan', being said in my mother's stern voice - ugh! Someone make it stop!!!
'Am I ever going to get any faster?' - this is all Eric (hubby) ever hears... as I look up at him with a sad face. Dreams of finishing a race in the mid-pack finish times falling to the floor...
Running has only been my friend for about a year or so now... we had a relationship back in 2008 but we spent some time apart (I was seeing more of my bike and my physiotherapist...on my off-work hours) but we got back together again when I hooked up with JJ (coach) and I have been very happy about that. But... I am a slow runner. I dream of being able to run 10k in 60 minutes. That 6:00/km pace eludes me. Not by a few seconds mind you... by about a minute per km!
We (well, JJ...) decided (and I agreed!) that I need to work on shorter and faster runs for my training for 2011. It sounded okay at the time although I worried that without long slow runs I would put weight back on... and I didn't really have a clue how doing shorter runs would pay off... I began seeing things like 'tempo run' in Training Peaks and no matter how many times I tried to understand what that means (I never did any speedwork in my running clinic back in 2008... I was just focused on getting in the prescribed mileage - at whatever speed I could run) I just could not grasp what I was trying to accomplish.
Last week, I had an epiphany after reading an old Runners World article and the lightbulbs going off in my brain nearly blinded me! A tempo run is a lactate threshold run!!!! How simple! Why this never sunk in before I do not know... other than I never heard the words 'lactate threshold' which what registered - finally!
Armed with this newfound clarity, I went to the MacMillan running site and downloaded some cool pace charts to get some ideas of what I was trying to 'hit' in terms of pace on various runs. I was so excited, I wanted to go out for a run - RIGHT NOW!! I didn't though... it was a bike night.
Then, in the midst of all this excitement, I opened my big mouth to JJ, and admitted that I wonder if actually hold myself back mentally (afraid to run out of steam before the end of the run), and could perhaps (gasp!) go faster than I do on my training runs...?
Lo and behold, I saw a prescribed pace show up in Training Peaks this week! LOL!!! I was terrified! HOW could I possibly hold this pace that looked so fast to my terrified brain, for an entire 10 minutes??
No one could be more astonished than I was last night when I finally got up the courage to check my pace at regular intervals throughout my tempo run. Oh. My. God. I AM GETTING FASTER!!! Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!! Not only was I able to 'hold' that prescribed pace for 10 minutes but I held a pace that was 20 seconds faster than that! The best part? I could have kept going longer!!
Is my running body finally adapting??? I think it IS!!
Well, after all those months (3!) of whining about how much I loathe speedwork because it isn't helping my stumpy legs run any faster, doing the runs but not feeling that I was seeing any results... feeling like I'm doomed to be a one-speed runner... the work is paying off.
I couldn't be happier!!
Maybe I will actually run a 60 minute 10k sometime this year :) Look out Boston... I'm coming to get you in... let's see... 2050??
Happy training everyone!
