Following Instinct

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t want to be a speed demon. I don’t expect to finish in the top half of the marathon. I don’t even care if I’m dead last. I just want to finish.

But I gotta tell you: I can’t imagine running for 8 hours. 8 hours. Running.

I know people will do that very thing in the Mardi Gras Marathon. I may be one of them.

It will take me increasingly longer to do my long run each weekend. This will rapidly become a major time consumer. I have made a commitment to myself to work up to running five miles with a one-mile warm-up each day. If I could do this in an hour someday, it would be a perfect lifetime workout. Right now, I’m walk/running three miles for a warm-up and running three miles about three times a week, and it’s been taking me about 90 minutes to do it. I’ve been running very slowly and it takes me as long to run three miles as it does to walk it.

I’m just thinking that I would like to get done a little sooner. Not for glory (that’s well out of my reach!), but to just be done. Sooner. I know that the 15-26.2 mile stretch during the marathon will consist of slower miles than the 1-15 mile stretch, for virtually everyone. In order to start out with 15-minute miles and finish with 15-minute miles, I would have to be some kind of robot. Which I clearly am not.

So, I decided last weekend to do some interval training to strengthen my legs and get my speed up. I know this may cause some protest among the tribe. One member has already expressed her disapproval. But hear me out.

I warmed up, then ran slowly for one block and fast for two blocks. I did this several times, then I alternated one block of slow for one block of fast, then two blocks of slow for one block of fast. It wasn’t easy. Toward the end, I walked a bit on my slow blocks. By the time I was done, I was tired, but not bonked. The kiddo and I went for a bike ride for about an hour and I felt fine.

Last night, Tim and I ran for the first time together in nearly a week. We ran/walked our first three miles, then stopped to use the restroom. Then we ran the other three miles. My speed was much increased and I felt much stronger. Tim commented on how strong I seemed to be. I felt wonderful, in fact. When all was said and done, it took us 80 minutes to do the whole thing, including the bathroom break. We believe we shaved 15 minutes off our three-mile time, finishing it in a record 30 minutes.

This morning, I feel great.

Instinct rocks.