hitting pause. and time to whip out my track suit!

For starters. I'm leaving tomorrow. On an aero-plane. To go far, far away. For a week. This is significant only because I was informed by Hospital Hill that race pictures won't be ready until Wednesday. I did not share this because I'm under the impression you care about my travel plans. So the race report will have to wait until next week.

Sadz. I really, really enjoyed that race. And really, really want to blather about it. I want to share it with the WORLDDDDDDDD!! But do so with photograph. So wait I shall.


In other news. I am going to my first ever group track workout tonight. THIS GIRL talked me into it. The thing is this. You know I love myself some speedwork. I am a self professed lover of all things running torture. However, I am also a total hermit when it comes to said torture of tempos and intervals. When I go for speed, I go alone. (giggle all you 12 year olds out there....). Which makes me nervous to go try speedwork with a group of people. Intimidating. For me, anyway.

I think speedwork suits my nature. It's a challenge. I think of nothing else but the task at hand. And I get to be alone, internalize and concentrate. When I do speedwork and when I seriously race, I internalize deeply. I tune out the world, and tune into my little world of running. It's absolutely self-indulgent. And I absolutely love it. Crave it, even. In my best races I can look back and point to the fact that I deeply internalized during that race. I never did that in a marathon. Correlation? Hmmm. I think so.

Clearly this style of speedwork isn't conducive to running with others. But, I am always looking for a running challenge and to grow in my running. Since I'm not a bit interested in doing a billion marathons or ultra marathons, or what have yous; I am focused on getting faster. That said. I am sure this will be a good experience for me, pull me out of my running comfort zone a bit.

There are coaches at the track workouts. Of whom I can pick their speedy little brains for opinions, speed suggestions and workouts for my fall half marathon goals. Even mull my half marathon goals over with. That aspect I am excited about. I would love some outside opinion on what a coach thinks I might be able to pull off. Which will all hopefully tap deeper into my running well over the summer and produce good results this fall.

I'll let you know how ALL of the above pans out next week. Until then, have a great week of runnings. I'll miss reading all about it over the next week!