Half Full/Half Fast
I enjoyed my race yesterday (see previous post) and I had a good recovery run today. I am also happy to be taking tomorrow off from work to spent with my friend H, who will arrive in a few hours.
Next weekend I am doing a 10 mile race in Central Park. Last year I did this race in a fairly fast time, and I don’t think I can improve upon it yet. I don’t do many 10 miles races and I want to keep my expectations realistic. Something that made me happy yesterday was that while I was happy to be finished with the 13.1 miles, I could have done another couple of miles if necessary. In the past 2 years I’ve done 15 races of 13 miles or more so the distances are not usually the problem. I would like to do more speed training, but I don’t “qualify” for our local group’s class because they have a prerequisite that you can run a 5K in under 30 minutes–that’s a 9:40/mile pace. I’m sad to be excluded, but I understand that there’s more glory and money in training the fasties to be faster than in encouraging non-beginners who are slow. It is expected that you’ll grow out of being very slow and I haven’t.
But I will keep running and trying to improve, especially in the longer distances. It’s a lot of fun and sometimes the endorphins emerge. Mine finally made themselves known yesterday and it was fantastic!
May 4, 2008 at 5:39 pm
That’s really annoying! I get it, but it’s still really annoying. You can’t be the only one who feels that way - perhaps you could suggest they organize a second class? Or even, would they let you post an advertisment for an “improvers” class? I’d totally sign up - even if it was just a group of folks who get together for speed work together and take turns coming up with the speed workout for the week.
May 4, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Meg, I agree. I also think that in the past we slow folk have been very labor intensive and demanding and that’s why they’ve dropped us. The more speeds there are the more coaches they need. It IS annoying that we aren’t cost effective.
May 5, 2008 at 11:42 am
That blows. Money shouldn’t be the only object.
May 5, 2008 at 3:17 pm
It’s a conspiracy. The fast people don’t want the slow people to get faster!