Speed work: I did it!

Last week I promised myself that I would begin doing speed work this week on Tuesday. We got more crazy snowfall over the weekend which made me worry that it wouldn't happen. Then, during the Super Bowl, a friend revealed that she's got a treadmill in her basement and that I'm welcome to use it any time. Boo-yah!

And so it was: Yesterday evening, before trivia, I squeezed in a visit to said friend's house and hopped onto the treadmill. I planned to do four half-mile repeats.

Warm-up: 1 mile @ 6.5 mph

6x 1/2 mile @ 8 mph

1/4 mile @ 6 mph recovery between repeats (5x)

Cool down: 3/4 mile @ 6 mph

Yep, I manned up and threw in two more repeats. During the fourth I was feeling good. Also, I decided mid-run that I wanted to do six miles instead of five. I wasn't sure exactly what my pace was, but I thought 8-miles per hour was a good place to start. Next week I'm going to instead go for negative splits on the repeats, considering that I know I can go harder. Also, I'm going to aim for eight repeats.

This can only improve my speed and endurance, right? We'll find out on April 19th. Or maybe on April 27th. I should probably figure out which marathon in that 8-day span will be my PR attempt. Or, dare I say it, my Boston qualifying attempt...