Let's face it; I have
always been a slow runner. Running has always been easy sports for me, I can
collect kilometers with little pain and recover fast. But as soon as I should
run fast, my legs feel like iron blocks I have to drag with me. So six months
ago I would have never believed that today I go for 17 km run, with average
speed 30 sec/ km faster than I used to and I still enjoy every moment of it.
So what has changed? I have not trained more quantity than before but I have changed the quality significantly. When starting my preparation for the half marathon in Hannover, I decided to follow the half marathon training plan from Furman Institute. This time I actually followed it, not just had it available... The plan looks relatively easy in terms of kilometers (and honestly that was my motivation to follow it as with work and family, I don't have endless hours for training) -easy up to the moment I calculated the running speed for each training by translating miles and kilometers back and forth. It turned out I should increase my speed heavily, something I knew would be far from easy for me. Motivated by the low training hours though I decided to give a try to it. No need to lie, the first few trainings were painful, intervals, tempo and long runs, all of them were a fight forward. But after while it got easier and somehow my body just accepted that it had to like the new speed.
I am so pleased and excited to see this change in my running; I feel great despite the long run and am looking forward to my next lessons on the road. Today was 17 km with average speed 5:26/km, it sets great baseline for my marathon training. More this kind of runs and I will feel high whole summer from the endorphins!
So what has changed? I have not trained more quantity than before but I have changed the quality significantly. When starting my preparation for the half marathon in Hannover, I decided to follow the half marathon training plan from Furman Institute. This time I actually followed it, not just had it available... The plan looks relatively easy in terms of kilometers (and honestly that was my motivation to follow it as with work and family, I don't have endless hours for training) -easy up to the moment I calculated the running speed for each training by translating miles and kilometers back and forth. It turned out I should increase my speed heavily, something I knew would be far from easy for me. Motivated by the low training hours though I decided to give a try to it. No need to lie, the first few trainings were painful, intervals, tempo and long runs, all of them were a fight forward. But after while it got easier and somehow my body just accepted that it had to like the new speed.
I am so pleased and excited to see this change in my running; I feel great despite the long run and am looking forward to my next lessons on the road. Today was 17 km with average speed 5:26/km, it sets great baseline for my marathon training. More this kind of runs and I will feel high whole summer from the endorphins!
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