Wake up people, it's beautiful outside, go run!

5 recovery miles done this morning, time for coffee!

Hope everyone has a great day!

 Well done LRB - those numbers are right around where I have the same workouts.

I have been searching high and low since your post yesterday but cannot  for the life of me find the sticky note that has my splits on it from the first couple of times I did that workout, damn.

It was a Tuesday in July of 2012 (Tuesday, sound familiar?) and MJ5 was actually the person who first suggested I try 5 X 1000's, so I did.  And no different than now I went out there and thoroughly got my head and ass kicked.  lol

My splits were all over the place and in the neighborhood of 4:31, 4:37, 4:53, 5:03 and 4:38 or something pretty close to that (paces of 7:15 - 8:07).  At the time I didn't know what the paces were and had no idea what any of it meant, I just knew the shit hurt.  lol

That following weekend though I ran a 21:36 in a 5k finally beating my then 13 month old PR of 21:42, and was completely intrigued by the concept of speed work.  Now two years later I am running the same workout in the 3:40 range (sub-6:00) with only a second or two difference in my splits.

My point in all of that is just like anything else in life faster race times are earned through hard work, they are not just handed to you.  Those splits prove that I was no different than anyone else but I made a commitment and put in the time and now dozens and dozens of workouts later I am a completely different runner.

I want to find and keep that sticky note though because I never want to forget the runner that I once was, absolutely clueless about training for speed but hungry and driven.

My final story is yet to be written obviously but to the point where I am now it is proof that anyone can become a better runner, you just have to work really, really hard at it.  Some more than others but you know what?  That is okay because fast, medium or slow, we are all an experiment of one.

Good morning, all you speedy dailies!

SRD for me. Going to Lowe's or Home Depot to pick up some shrubs for the front of the house. I tore out some dead/overgrown stuff last week, enlarged the bed, rototilled it, and put a stone border on it so it's ready for plants and mulch.

Great, great post, Rick. You are proof of everything that your post is about.

I woke up too late for my 18 miler. My guests are arriving at 11 a.m. for brunch, and an afternoon of chit-chating on the terrace while I'm googoo-gagaing over my cutiepie Esmée.  Unfortunately, I'll have to excuse myself around 5 p.m. to go run 2 hours and change in the garage. But they know the nut that I am by now, so no one will raise an eyebrow, I'm sure. 

Have a great Sunday, everyone!

LRB I can't quote on my tablet but I ditto your last paragraph. Of course I am nowhere close to being what most

would call fast but in 2009 after 9 years of running and 15 or so halfs I decided I wanted to do better than my

slowish 2:15 half race times. Since then I have worked my butt off and 2:00 is now my average half time. Not a

huge difference but given that I am running them at age 52 I am happy.  In the process I have also lowered all my

PRs each year since then.

Overall going from 2009 (age 48)  to 2013/2014

5 k   29:07 - 25:27

5 miler - 51:44 - 42:21

10 k - 58:49 - 51:36

1/2 - 2:15:43 - 1:57:44

26.2 - 4:39 - 4:10 (first full was 2010 4:39)

I really never thought that I could reach the  times I have so I think it shows that for us late coming

Recreational runners no matter how long you have been running or how old you are there are

Improvements that can come from hard work. I just took a huge chunk of my 10k so hopefully more

PRs will come this year.

Anyway tired after yesterdays brick of 47.5 bike/4 km run so the 6 miler I am heading out for should be super slow.

Morning people. D2 - that's what I was doing!

9 miles total: 3 warmup, 4 at tempo (originally planned 3 but decided to add 1), 2 cooldown. For tempo paces I was shooting for 7:30's; ended up with 7:51 (not really that slow but somehow missed my watch beeping & started speeding up 0.1 miles in), 7:34, 7:38, decided to hammer the last one & ended up 7:00 flat.

60.4 total for the week. Higher than it's been lately, due to my first ever week running 7 days (thanks to that stupid race on Monday my usual RD).

Have a great day everyone.

Damn, Z, that cake you posted last night looks good!

Me too.