Today I did my first official "speedwork" session as part of my half marathon training. I have to admit, I was a little afraid of it when I saw it on the schedule. I don't like to breathe hard. :) The basic plan was one mile warm-up, then two 1-mile repeats at a fast pace with half-mile jogs in between, and then a cooldown. Total distance 5 miles.

The fast pace wouldn't be considered fast by elite standards, but it was challenging for me. I did ultimately end up enjoying it. It's fun to push yourself sometimes. When I felt a little bit like slowing down during the second fast mile I reminded myself that people on the Biggest Loser who weigh twice as much as I do are able to do this, so I can do it, too.

This Runner's World schedule I'm following is interesting to me. All the paces were chosen for me based on the previous half marathon time I entered. It only has speed sessions one time per month. There are also tempo runs every other week. And a lot of what are labeled as "easy runs" where the prescribed pace is much slower than my normal running pace so I confess I have been running faster than it calls for. It's very different from the TNT plan I followed, which just gave me a mileage total for the day without any directions regarding pace.

By the way, the guy on the treadmill next to me was doing one-minute intervals. During his speed intervals, he was going ELEVEN miles per hour. His rest intervals in between were about the same pace as my speed intervals. :)