I have done almost no running speed work, as part of my training so far this year.  Having put the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on my calendar, and designating it as my last ‘A’ race of the year, it is time to start including some.

If I want to run a fast open marathon, it is important that I do at least some faster running in my training.  The vast majority of my miles will still be done at an easy pace, but including speed work is now also critical.

I did a ‘ramp up’ run this evening.  The ‘ramp up’ was three minutes of running in Zone 3, followed immediately by two minutes in Zone 4 and then straight into a minute in Zone 5.  After a five minute recovery, I did a second ramp up.  It was a tough but manageable run.

I worked hard and actually achieved my fastest 400m, 800m, and 1m of the year.  That is great, but I think it is more a reflection of how little speed work I have done, as opposed to how fast I ran this evening.  It’s a great starting point however, and I expect to get quicker over the coming few weeks.

In addition to this pure speed work, I will also be adding some tempo runs.  These also involve running a little faster, but over longer intervals and not at the speed and intensity of today’s run.

My enthusiasm for running remains high, which is a good thing when it comes to running fast.  These workouts can be hard work and require good motivation to do them right.