If Only Haddn't Gone Faster

My past two workouts, I’ve not adhered to my Hadd plan. Last Tuesday I felt like crap running my sub […]

By on July 17, 2007 | Comments

My past two workouts, I’ve not adhered to my Hadd plan. Last Tuesday I felt like crap running my sub 165 effort. After stints of two miles and one mile at 165 effort, I threw in the towel… only to do the WRC’s track workout in it’s entirety. As noted earlier, that workout was a bit harder than my target effort. Today, I went out and did 2.5 miles right on target. That’s when someone came up on my should and sat, so I asked them what pace they were shooting for and picked it up to help them out. I puled them along for a mile and then continued the 170-173 effort through to 4.5 miles total. Through this point I likely averaged 6:15 pace. That’s when I put on my music, which I normally use as a distraction/reward for the last 1.5 or 2 miles of each workout. Well, my current favorite pop song/get me to dance all over the room or crowded metro car song came on. I took off. While I didn’t get a split, I seriously suspect that I ran sub-5:15 or close to it. It felt like I was flying AND it was FUN! All the folks who are used to seeing me do “speed” work at 6:20 pace had no frickin clue what was going on. The culprit tune was the Lil Mama/Avril Lavigne remix of Avril’s Girlfriend. No, I’m not kidding. Put it on while you’re running – you can’t help but go faster.

Completely unrelated, check out Luna’s cover of Sweet Child O’ Mine. It’s in the rare class of songs that make you want to cry with joy and sorrow at the same time. Pretty much all of those songs are ridiculously good (you have to be that good to be that chock full o’ emotion), and this one is no exception. It came up in the mix while drafting this post… thought I’d share.

Bryon Powell

Bryon Powell is the Founding Editor of iRunFar. He’s been writing about trail running, ultrarunning, and running gear for more than 15 years. Aside from iRunFar, he’s authored the books Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and Where the Road Ends: A Guide to Trail Running, been a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, written for publications including Outside, Sierra, and Running Times, and coached ultrarunners of all abilities. Based in Silverton, Colorado, Bryon is an avid trail runner and ultrarunner who competes in events from the Hardrock 100 Mile just out his front door to races long and short around the world, that is, when he’s not fly fishing or tending to his garden.