We’re all familiar with the house analogy, aren’t we? You work on your basic endurance, then you work on strength (enter: hill training), then, as your “roof” you work on speed.
I’m starting construction on my roof. And it’s just as hard as it ever was.
Yesterday was my second Monday of intervals. Last week I ran 3k to warm up, four 600m sprints and then about 1k to cool down. Yesterday I ran 2.5k to warm up, 2x700m, 2x600m and 1x500m, then 2.5k to cool down.
The amazing thing about speed training is that is works. You teach your body to run fast under fatiguing situations and guess what? You start running faster. The absolutely horrendous things about speed training is that it’s haaaaaaarrrrrddd!
First sprint yesterday and I was all, hey this isn’t so bad! Second sprint, my legs were starting to feel rubbery. Third sprint and I was in the place where pain makes you so angry and whose stupid idea was this?!? Also, I tasted blood. And almost puked.
I happily ran 29k last Friday. I love hill training in a weird sort of way. But for the love of all that is holy I despise speed training with the heat of a thousand fiery suns.
There’s something to be said for learning to push yourself into a place that is painful in order to reach your goals, I know that. And I’m not someone who finds that easy to do (AKA all the self-preservation areas of my brain are working correctly), and yes there are all these life lessons I can learn from pushing myself and speed training and comparing marathon training to traveling down a lonely wooded trail. I cherish all of those lessons and try my best to embrace what I’ve learned and hold on tight. But during those sprints? All I think about is how much I hate it. All of it.
What about you? Do you have the same (admittedly extreme) reaction to speed training (or some other form of self-torture) and despite your better judgement just keep doing it again and again? (Did I say my brain was fully functional? Hmmm…) How do you push yourself when the going gets really, really hard?
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I do get it done, because last summer’s training cycle was the first where I’d ever done speedwork in earnest (as opposed to something chicken$hit like, 3×400 with a 5 minute recovery) and reaped the rewards with 5 PRs in a row. I’m not sure how I motivate myself, I guess I am at the track before 6 am and the saving grace is that it’s over FAST before my body and brain know what really hit it.