Speedwork kicks my butt

Last night was the second week of speed training with the local running store. This week was the first real week of working out, as last week was strictly time trials. According to my time trial result I should be shooting to run about a 4:14 800meter pace. Yeah, no big deal right? Guess again. I did great the first two or three repeats, but by the fourth set I was feeling a little winded and by the last set I was whipped.

This was really a wake up call for me. While my aerobic conditioning may be stellar and my slow twitch fibers very well developed, apparently those pesky fast twitch fibers are not so well developed.

These sessions are very well attended by the local running community. The local running community is sometimes very friendly and accepting of non-club members, but at other times they can be very cliquish and hard to get to know. I notice at one particular organizations events there are a lot of people who have been running for a long time who seem to look down their noses at those of us who haven't been running for ten years.

I don't know, maybe my expectations are unreasonable. I thought that I would find most running clubs and groups to be eager to interact with other runners and to be really interested in what the other people are training for. The more seasoned runners do seem okay when asked for specific advice, but other than that they're kind of standoffish.

All told, I got a great workout from the session, so great in fact that I did not want to run this morning before work. I slept in instead, and now will have to run this evening. Oh well, maybe it will be semi-cool out tonight and I can run outside.