Thursday, May 9, 2013

I'm a Slow Runner, but I'm Still a Runner!

Today, I wanted to talk about being a slow runner. That's me! I am slow - at least for now - but I am still a runner. When I say slow, I mean I trained for the Princess Half at a pace between 13:00 and 14:00 min/mile. I see so many people posting their workouts to Twitter, with such fast paces! I see paces of 7:00 min/mile! That is twice as fast as I am running! I'm honestly amazed that people can move so fast, but it can be a little discouraging at the same time.


Now, that's not to say seeing these fast runners makes me want to stop running. In fact, I find it's the opposite more often than not. These fast runners make me want to keep running - because if I keep running, then I can get faster too! I already look at how far I've come and I'm so happy with myself. I recently ran an entire 5k without a walk break. That's amazing to me. And now I know, if I just keep running, the speed that other runners have will come in time to me too.


I'm now on the my third week of marathon training. It's been good so far, but the long runs are about to get much longer! I'm both excited and scared for them. I know they will take a while to complete, but that's ok. So even if it takes me hours, I'm going to run. A mile is still a mile, whether you are fast or slow!


So what am I doing to try to pick up the pace? I'm doing longer run and shorter walk intervals for my long training runs (right now, I've bumped it up to 5 min run/1 min walk). On my shorter runs, I'm pushing myself a bit more - adding speed intervals and sometimes running a full mile before taking a short walk break. I can already see the improvement in my speed. In February, I was at 13:00-14:00 min/mile and now I'm 11:30-12:30 min/mile! I just need to keep at it and the speed will follow as my fitness and endurance improves.

I have a 10k Mother's Day race on Sunday, so we'll see how my past few weeks have helped my race time. I'm hoping to get under 1:15:00 for my 10k time (and first official 10k race), but we'll see. What matters is that I am out there running, slow or not!

Are you a slow runner? Do you have plans to improve your speed? If so, what are you changing about your training?