"More than just okay"

As much as I tried not to complain about speed workouts while running cross country and track, I secretly cursed them in my mind and body. 400m repeats, circuit training, 300m repeats, ladder runs, fartleks, strides. Ugh. But as much as I dreaded these workouts from Hell, I always appreciated them. And now that I've been on my own for almost a year, my appreciation for butt-busting, gut-wrenching, confidence-slapping speed workouts has hit a new high.

For most runners, to be considered a good/strong runner means more than going for a run everyday. For me, averaging twenty-thirty miles a week doesn't cut it (not that I've even met that standard recently). Mileage is the foundation, the base, as my former coach would call it. At some point, though, I have to step outside of my comfort zone, pick up the knees, and drive hard for more than just the home stretch.

Lately, my philosophy has been, "start easy and pick it up later (if you feel like it)." That's crap! That's a good plan for new runners, people just starting to get into a routine. That's a good plan for runners who have taken months or weeks off from running for whatever reasons. I've been running since I was twelve, have never taken more than one full month off from running (and even then I found myself on a bike or in the pool), and I have been running at least weekly since September. It's time for me to man up.

So today I ran a fartlek. I ran a very poor fartlek, but that's beside the point. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, fartlek simply means alternating between high- and low-intensity intervals. For instance, I began with a three-minute warm-up, which is not a sufficient warm-up, by the way, followed by three minutes at a faster pace, then back to 3 minutes easy. I only completed three sets before I had to cool down, but I guess it's a start.

As I'm recovering from my workout, I'm struggling to put my thoughts into words, but here goes: endurance will get you there, but what if you want to get there well? I would say faster, but then someone will argue that patience is a virtue and that first place is not the most important prize. Anyway, I am not content with simply "getting there;" I want people to know I trained, and I trained with purpose. I want to know in my heart that I did more than just finish; I finished strong.