A 6:49 mile

This morning was my speed workout. Now normally, this run is more intense, but I generally do not do any sort of intervals. The speed workouts are probably the thing I do not put the most time into. I really don't like them - I've never been a big speed fan, which was I got into long-distance running in the first place.

Mary, who played lacrosse at Colby, has given me some advice on training. One of the things she had to do at Colby was the Gauntlet: a series of descending intervals: 1600, 800, 400, etc (I think there were intervals than that). Each of these had to be done in a certain time. This morning, I couldn't remember what exactly the times were, or how much time to rest between intervals, but I went to the DuFour Center track (and the lacrosse team was practicing, which made me think of Katie Riddle). Anyways, I did the gauntlet, at least as much as I could remember:
1600 M: 6:49
800 M: 3:22
400 M: 1:34
400 M: 1:31 (I figured I should try it twice, since I had a sneaking suspicion I was neglecting another interval)

I don't think I've ever been able to run a mile under 7 minutes before today. The closest I got to that was 7:15 in high school, when I ran track my freshman year (and that was considered to be slow in comparison with my teammates). I realize that it makes sense that I can now, given the training I've been doing. But it felt like a big moment to break through that time barrier. It went by really fast (not even 2 songs on my mp3 player - "In the Navy" by the Village People" and "Single Ladies" by Beyonce); I was shocked. Now, I want to make a goal to shorten that time - because I feel like I probably could've push a little more to get to 6:45 (I think if someone was standing there at the end waiting for me, I could've gotten there in that time).

Which brings me to another point. While I love the independence of running alone and knowing that I am totally in control of everything I'm doing, there are days when I wish I had some sort of coach or person waiting for me at the end. Yes, I am motivating myself to finish, but sometimes I cannot summon enough self-determination to keep going, and that makes me want to have a coach of sorts. If anything, at least I'll get that on Marathon Day, when I'll have friends and family (my parents are coming!) waiting for me. :-)