Running Fast

I posted this on the Highlands Roadrunners Club Facebook Group today:

I would have to go back to last year's running log to see when I last ran 400-meter intervals as fast as I did today: 2:13, 2:10, 2:08. 2:06. It is satisfying to finally be recovered from injury enough to be able to run FAST again!

Or should I say "half-fast," as certain of our members like to say.


Of course, everything is relative, but it really did feel good, and I attribute it all to the long, slow build-up of base miles, forcing myself to run "tempo" runs by entering four races so far this year, and surely to simply trusting in God and listening to my body.  Alleluia! 

There is a certain dogged kind of perseverance in being able to run long, and running steep is also a matter of focus and discipline, simply putting one step in front of another and never giving up.  But running fast!  It is thrilling to be able to hit these splits again, no matter how much slower they are than I those I used to complete 10 years ago.  And it is also the only way to improve speed.  It sounds almost simpleminded, but Coach Richard Smith once gave me this good advice while we were timing runners coming across the finish line when I was Race Director at one of those old Highlands School PTO runs:  "The only way to run fast is to run fast."

So true.  So Thursdays will become Interval Day for awhile.