Speed work. Intervals Fartleks. Sprints. Call then what the chuff you like 0 I hate them. I am not a professional athlete but somehow I get swallowed up by the running bug and end up doing these sessions. Why? Why do I do speed work when I hate it?
I love running. But I love the kind of running that doesn’t exactly build up speed. I enjoy long runs, preferably on trails with great scenery. Romantic running. Running that, if it were a film, would have some awesome cinematic orchestral music behind it.
Running 1-minute speed intervals on a rainy Tuesday night is not what I love. Nope, not at all.
I should have gone in the morning. But after being woken in the night by our kitchen TV blaring out due to the f*cking cat laying on the remote control I couldn’t be arsed to get up at 6am. When the alarm went off I made a mental excuse that it was too late.
Of course, I knew I was going to run after work. the plan was simple.
Get home. Make sure the kids ate. Help with panto make-up. Argue with an 11-year-old about eye-liner flicks. Try on lipstick (don’t ask). Pack them off to panto. Remove lipstick. Run.
I had already set the training session on my TomTom watch. A 5-minute warm-up, then 15 reps of 1:05 fast / 1:00 slow, then a 5-minute cooldown. But I almost talked myself out of it. I argued that I could just go and try to do a fast 5km instead.
But no! I stuck to my guns and did the interval session. During the fast bits, I would vary my effort, not always going flat out. During the slow bits, I would try and keep moving rather than stopping.
After the pre-programmed session ended I just kept running. Just weaving around the streets if out small country market town. I was aiming to be at the dance studio to walk home with Grace. I managed to time it pretty well and clocked up 10km in the process.
So why do I do it? Why do a type of running I hate?
Well, you see, I do actually want to get faster. I am running the Blackpool marathon in April and I am aiming for 3 hours and 30 minutes. That is only going to be achievable if I actually put some effort into improving my speed. Well, that’s what I keep telling myself.
So, 10km done. I am now over 100km for the month and over 10 miles this week. What shall I do tomorrow? Well getting up at 5am for a start and that’ll be a challenge in itself!
Thanks for reading
D
