Running Pretty Far

In 1971, folk singer Melanie (Melanie Safka - remember her?) released a song called "Brand New Key," which at the time was a bit scandalous because everyone knew she was talking about sex and not roller-skating:  "I got a brand new pair of roller skates, you got a brand new key."  Now that I am an old runner trying to find the speed in my legs, I think it is about running. 

Saturday I "skated" 12 miles, round and round Highlands.  And this morning, I did eight miles, up Big Bearpen and back down, and then up Sunset Rocks and back down, and then out Gibson Road - miles and miles of hills.  It seems I can run 20 miles these days during a period of only 72 hours, and hilly miles at that, but I can't seem to run faster than a 2-minute quarter-mile interval.  And with the possibility of a one-mile race and a five-mile race on the horizon in less than three weeks, I would like to find once again that elusive speed in my legs that only comes from repeatedly running intervals - "You have to run fast in order to be able to run fast," as a high school cross-country coach told me many years ago.

And so I thought about Melanie and her notorious lyric this morning: 

"Don't go too fast but I go pretty far."

Come on, speed!  It almost seems like you're avoiding me.