Scared of Speedwork

Yesterday’s training schedule called for my first true speedwork session in a long time.  I headed over to the track at Clear Springs High School, which I had never used before.  As I drove up, I couldn’t see any lines on the track, but it turns out they were there — just very worn.  I plunked my water bottle down on the edge and got started with my warmup mile.  There were a handful of other runners there, and more showed up during my run, which was nice.  On the downside, while there were lights, they never came on — even though by 7:00 when I left, it was starting to get dark.

After I warmed up, it was time to get down to business.  I was NOT feeling very confident, for a number of reasons.

1. I was never a track and field person, so I don’t actually understand all of the different markings on the track.  I assume it was a 400 meter track.  Is there such a thing as a 400 yard track?  I don’t know.  I ran in the inside lane, and ran 2.5 laps for each repeat.
2. I’ve done formal speedwork in the past, but recently have only done VERY casual speedwork — instead of specified distances or times, I’d just run hard for 2 minutes and then easy for 2 minutes, or something like that.  All time-based, not distance-based.
3. I don’t perceive myself as being very good at pacing, and I was worried about starting too fast.
4. The workout called for 5 x 1000 meter repeats at 10K pace with 2 minutes of rest between each one, and I worried about whether I could actually complete it.  (I plugged my “stretch goal” pace of 10:00/mile for the half marathon into the McMillan Running Calculator, which gave me a 10K pace of 9:28/mile.  That means I was aiming for 5:50-5:55 for each 1000m repeat.)  It seemed like a lot.  From the start, I was telling myself things like “oh, I can just do 3 or 4 repeats if I get tired” and “I can take 3-4 minutes to recover if I want to.”

But mostly?  I was nervous because speedwork scares me.  There: I said it.  SPEEDWORK SCARES ME!  It’s precise, it’s measurable, and most of all, it’s hard.  I can’t just cruise along.  I have to push myself, even when I might not feel like it.  To someone like me who claims to run just for fun, the specificity of speedwork is just intimidating.

However, I’m happy to report that once I warmed up and got started, it went really REALLY well!  I managed all 5 repeats between 5:47 and 5:52.  My fastest was the 4th, and my slowest was the 5th.  Since I was worried about pacing, I checked my watch every 100-200 meters; I was aiming to cover each 200m in 1:10, and I usually hit that almost dead on.  Maybe I’m not as bad at pacing as I thought?  The first repeat was definitely the easiest, and the last was definitely the hardest, but even on the last one I wasn’t running at maximum effort.  (Close, but not maximum.)  I walked 200m for each recovery and took a swig of water, which ended up taking more like 2:10-2:15 than the prescribed 2 minutes, but I decided that was close enough.

Overall, it was a hard workout, but not so hard that I couldn’t complete it, or felt awful at the end.  I actually felt great.  Tired, but happy that I got it done!