January 5, 2006--am I really going to post everyday???

Well, it appears, for the moment, yes, I am. I'll get bored with this, don't you worry. Bound to happen sooner or later.

After some discussion with my "virtual" training buddy, I decided I'd try some speedwork tonight. Speedwork, for you non-runners (and I'm sure there are millions of you reading this!), can be any number of techniques, but basically, you run fast for certain distances or amounts of time. Because I'm slow and not a very talented runner, I opt for the very simple, "run fast between X telephone poles, then run slow for Y number of telephone poles." In my case, X = 1, and Y = 2-3, unless I'm feeling spunky, then I might just alternate, run fast, run slow, every other pole; when I get tired, I just resort to a slow run for a couple blocks. Anyhoo, it worked. I ran just over 2 miles (all I intended to run) in 22:11...10:46 pace. May not seem like much, but to me, this is astonishing!

So here in lies the problem. I can run faster. I'm getting faster all the time. But I slow down during races. I psyche myself out, because I'm convinced if I start off too fast I'll burn out before the end. Which isn't based on fiction...my early races were definitely like that. I guess I need to test out my new theory in a 5K to see if I can actually find a "race pace" that isn't slower than my training pace. Interesting.

I also need to get off the stick and start looking for a new job. Although I've got some interesting responsibilities at my current position, it's just not what I thought I'd be doing 12 years ago when I got my Master's. But what exactly, do I want to do with the rest of my life????