Running Fast

This morning, I woke up and ran for 9.09 miles in 1:09:00, an average time of 7:35 min/mile.  After that little break from running, I still had some speed in my legs... which I hope to use for the 50 miler coming up in less than 2 weeks.  Unfortunately... or fortunately??? I wasn't done yet.  In the afternoon, I parked way out in Market Square, and walked down to Tom Black Track which is in the UT campus, and ran with the Knoxville Track Club Runners, who were pretty darn fast.  They were 5k runners so they had a lot more speed than I had, but I needed the speed workout so after a nice little warm-up, I did the speed work out with the group.  Now because I did it with the group, I didn't put my iPhone app on, so I ran without knowing exactly how much I ran.  Personally, it was great being able to do that and not worry about my pace or knowing where I was.  All I did was follow the leader and do my best to keep up with them for the 1200m repeats that we did.

Personally, in order to run fast, you don't need to constantly time yourself to see how well you are and numerically decide how fast you were going.  Every day, our body is in a different condition, and when we look at the speed numerically, we don't calculate that part, which could make it harder for the individual.  When running fast, it's important to push yourself so that you become better.  We ought not to push ourselves too much we end up hurting ourselves, but instead work to push our limits bit by bit.  I enjoyed my workout today and felt like this workout was good for me and helped me with working towards becoming faster.  I also met a couple people that shared the same interests as me with running and I'm hoping that I'll be able to meet them again and become a better runner thanks to their advice.

Running fast isn't all about time.  It's about effort.  When we run fast, we deplete our energy a little quicker, which makes me have to rely on what my legs are capable of... AND my willpower to use that.  It's not just ability that helps you run faster.  It's the guts to push yourself harder and harder to get results.  Working with those 5k runners was a good decision for me.  I'm hoping that this would continue so that I'd be able to become faster and use that speed to psychologically become stronger and do the 50 mile races with ease.