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One thing that has truly intrigued me is speed work (or track workouts, intervals, whatever you want to call it.) As far as I've been able to glean from my reading, it's basically running short distances (400 meters or so) at a faster-than-tempo-pace with the goal of improving your overall speed. I've also read that it really helps with form, forcing you go align yourself in order to get to that speed. Does this sound familiar? Am I getting the idea?
So my question for all of you who have run for awhile is....When is a good time to start adding it in? I've been fascinated by the thought of increasing my speed and really, it just seems like it would break up my workouts more, add some variety to my training. I'm just curious if I should wait until I've been doing this longer or do it now? Second question, Does it need to be done on a track? I've seen both and I'm sure a track is better on the legs but I don't really have one nearby. Should I wait until I can get to a track, or just do it around my neighborhood? I'm not really going to go too fast, I'm still a slow poke, but I would love to have some short bursts of speed. My other thought is to try it on the grass at a park. That's bound to be softer than the road, right?
I hope you can help me with this. I want to learn more about it and maybe try some. Thanks for the advice.
P.S. My legs are doing SOOOOO Much better since I started Yoga. I went out yesterday and had no pain in my ankles at all and hardly any in my knee! Yoga for Runners in my queue for netflix. I can't wait to try it out!
Stats:
| Distance 2.37 Mi. | Duration 34:20 | Avg. Pace 14:28 | Avg Speed 4.15 mph |
| 5:00 (warmup) | 15:51 | 8 |
| 5:00 (fast) | 13:24 | -3 |
| 1:00 (slow) | 15:42 | 0 |
| 5:00 (fast) | 12:43 | -5 |
| 1:00 (slow) | 15:29 | -1 |
| 5:00 (fast) | 14:19 | 4 |
| 1:00 (slow) | 16:22 | 1 |
| 5:00 (fast) | 14:30 | 1 |
| 1:00 (slow) | 12:12 | -0 |
| 5:00 (cooldown) | 16:22 | -2 |
