Fast Running and a Playlist

While I was writing the recap for my race on Sunday, I was thinking about how much the concept of “fast” varies from person to person.  I’m running slowly right now, compared to a few years ago, but for some people my pace may be fast.  And for others my paces will seem REALLY slow. Unfortunately- or fortunately, depending on who you are- genetics plays a large role in determining a fast runner.  I remember back in elementary school, we had field day once a year.  There were all sorts of races and I wanted to win one so badly.  And I tried!  I really tried, but just couldn’t compete with some of the other girls.  I was envious of the girls who could run fast. When I started running in high school, my natural “easy” pace was 1o minutes per mile.  I never attempted to run competitively in high school- I just ran for fun.  Same with college.  But after college I became aware of this thing called “speed work” and started going to a track once a week. Speed work consisted of running quarter mile repeats.  Period!  I had never heard of tempo runs or strides (were there such things in the 1990s?) and it never occurred to me to run 200, 800 or mile repeats.  Nope- speed work meant 400s, over and over and over again. Because I did it consistently, I had success with that.  This was when I was living in New York City, and I raced a LOT, at least every other weekend.  I hated 5Ks (too short and painful) and the half marathon, while definitely a thing, wasn’t the wildly popular race distance it is now.  I liked the 10K races and marathons. One of my crowning achievements was a sub-48 minute 10K.  Me!  A girl with very few fast twitch muscle fibers… I ran a sub-8 minute mile pace for a whole 10K.  And my other big achievement was a sub-4 hour marathon.  I worked hard for those PRs. Fast forward many years… I had my kids… my body decided to fall apart with multiple injuries.  Then, several years ago I managed to string together enough months of training to achieve some post-baby PRs.  A 5K at an 8 minute mile pace, and a sub-2 hour half marathon.  It was a big notch down from my previous PRs, but I still worked hard for them. Fast forward several more years… ugh.  What the heck happened?  My foot fell apart and it seems that I’m running slower and slower.  Now I’m struggling to hold a nine minute mile pace for a 5K.  For a while I was getting really discouraged… but you know what?  All this shows is that speed work WORKS.  And that’s the beauty of running- no matter where we’re at, we can always get faster than we are right now. I definitely don’t run as fast as a lot of people, and I don’t run as fast as I did a few years ago.  But I can start where I am right now, do those 400 repeats (why not?  they worked in the past!) and see how much improvement I can make.  No pressure- just for the fun of it. And now… here’s my playlist for the race on Sunday!  I think you might call it… “eclectic” or, possibly, “dorky.”  A few weeks ago, Nicole talked about the middle-aged-woman phenomenon of hearing a current pop song and saying “Oh yes- I know this from Peloton!”  Ha ha… I’m definitely not up on what’s current.  Clearly.  And as you can see I’ve included one of the most bizarre songs ever, “Turning Japanese.”  What in the world do the lyrics mean? Is it even politically correct?  I suspect not.  But, remember I was a teenager in the 80s, and every time I hear that song it makes me laugh.   I’m linking up with the Fab Five- Jenn, Darlene, Zenaida, Renee and Michelle for their Fit Five Friday! Are you currently doing speed work?  Are you still working towards PRs? What would be on your “fast running” playlist?