Speed! (sort of)

Tonight we had a track practice, and we did some speed work.

We started by running out to the track (roughly 1/2 mile). I am impressed that I can handle these shorter runs fairly easily now. It's nice to see my body adjust, even if it is doing the adjusting really slowly.

Once we got out to the track, we stretched as a group and then ran a "ladder". It went like this:
Run 30 seconds
Walk 1 minute
Run 30 seconds
Walk 1 minute
Run 1 minute
Walk 1 minute
Run 1 minute
Walk 1 minute
Run 1 1/2 minutes
Walk 1 minute
Run 1 1/2 minutes
Walk 1 minute
Run 1 minute
Walk 1 minute
Run 1 minute
Walk 1 minute
Run 30 seconds
Walk 1 minute
Run 30 seconds
Walk 1 minute

We were supposed to be running as fast as we could. We started out pretty fast (the 30 seconds felt great), but our pace definitely slowed as we worked through the runs. I had some trouble during the second 1 1/2 minute run (painful side cramp), but I managed to make it through the time and get rid of the cramp during the walk.

Even if our pace slowed, we managed to keep up a faster pace than our regular runs - we definitely couldn't carry on a conversation while we were running. Overall, I thought it went pretty well.

Slowly improving...slowly.