Up To Speed

"Speed is mostly for ego, but there's nothing wrong with a weekly ego boost." -Jeff Galloway

This was one of those days when I really wanted an ego boost.

Despite getting to bed at a reasonable hour last night, I didn't have a great night's sleep. Why, you ask? Because at around 4am, our upstairs neighbors decided to come down and sit outside our bedroom window talking for 15 minutes. The only bright side of this was that I got to be the grumpy old man and walk out the door, shaming them into going back into their apartment. Unfortunately, it also severely interrupted my sleep cycle, so when the alarm went off, I was not really up to the challenge.

I managed to get out the bedroom door and into the living room, but I heard the pup following, and not wanting her to go back in and wake up the wife, I invited the dog out to the room with me. Then, I thought about how nice it would be to take her for a run, since we hadn't gone on one in a while, but as it was not yet 6, I didn't want to take her out. I set an alarm for 30 minutes and we dozed on the couch. When next I woke up, it was to my wife getting ready for work, and the window had closed.

So, I went to work, taking some time for an errand or two, and then back to the desk, but I just could not focus today. There are lots of other things going on in my life right now, and I really needed to sort some of it out, which was causing me to zone out while I was attempting to work. This was unacceptable.

To the gym!

It's too warm in the afternoons to run outdoors these days, so I headed to the gym. I did all my core and arm work first, knowing that the probability of my wanting to do so after the run would be extremely low. It went quickly, and I felt really good as I got on the treadmill for the first time in several weeks.

I'm not sure what it is, but there's something about the treadmill that makes me want to run really fast. Most likely, it's that the faster I run, the sooner I'm done, and treadmill running is dull business. Today, I started out at my 8.0 pace and I felt so good for the first .25 (lap), that I made a snap decision. Each lap, I would increase my speed by .1 until I reached 9.9 for my last lap. The way I saw it, I would barely notice the difference from lap to lap, and it would give me some great strength training. What's more, I know that I'm going to need work on my late-race speed, so it would give me negative split training.

For the entire workout, I was doing math, figuring out what my previous split was and what my next one would be. You'd be amazed at how quickly that makes the time go by. When all is said and done, my miles were as follows:

7:24
14:26 (7:02)
21:09 (6:43)
27:35 (6:26)
33:46 (6:11)

I was absolutely dripping with sweat, and near exhaustion, but I haven't had speed like that in some time, and certainly not without pain. My confidence is through the roof right now. My head is clear. My spirits are high.

And my neighbors are quiet.

Tuesday's Run:
Indoors / Treadmill
5 Miles
33 Minutes, 46 Seconds