Speed, or the lack of it, is a mystery. I am lucky that I have always been faster than average for my age. It's my stamina that has always been lacking, because I have been injury-prone since high school, and therefore a very low-mileage runner, including many weeks and months (even years) of zero mileage when injured. However, this past spring I went through a perplexing time when I was running in molasses, and couldn't figure out why. If you care about speed, it makes an interesting story, I think. I had run only sporadically since spring 2007 due to injuries. In spring 2008 I decided to try to get going again, and not surprisingly I had little endurance. What astonished me was that I had no speed, either. In the past, even when I was not in good shape, I had usually been able to run 1 mile in sub-6:00. I had always been confident of my speed, expecting it to be there whenever I needed it. Now, even after weeks of training, I could barely run a 9:00 mile. It was like being trapped in one of those dreams, when you can only run in slow motion. Starting in March 2008 when the snow melted, I would occasionally go over to the local state park and run the 3-mile loop. To my frustration, I couldn't break 27:00. More often, I wasn't even breaking 30:00 for 3 miles! I would run something like 32:00, and feel exhausted and beat up. Then one day--and I know which day, because I recorded the details--my "slowness problem" suddenly disappeared, as if a switch had been thrown. On Friday, April 25, I went to the park to run my usual 3-mile loop. I was determined to break 27:00. However, I ran the 3-mile loop in 27:25. A good time for me, during that period of my running, but not what I had set out to do that day. So I kept running. I ran a second 3-mile loop, again trying to beat 27:00, feeling that the speed must be hidden somewhere inside me, if I could just coax it out. This was rather unrealistic of me, because I had already run 3 miles and was tired. Not surprisingly, the second loop was slower than the first. However, not by much: 27:34, only nine seconds slower, despite the fact that 6 miles was quite far for me, given my lack of recent training. So I kept running. In an irrational fury I thought, "Dammit, I will run faster this time," though I had already run 6 miles and I was in no shape to run 9. I ran the third 3-mile loop in 23:51, 3:43 faster than the previous loop, even though 9 miles was far more than I had run in many months. I still wasn't what you would call "fast," but I had broken through an invisible barrier. Since then I have continued to progress, on less than 15 miles per week, and I ran my 5K PR of 20:10 last month. (I'm well aware that 20:10 is not blinding speed--as I said, I am "faster than average for my age," that's all.) Anyway, I thought this experience was curious. I'm not sure what practical lesson is to be drawn from it, but perhaps it will encourage others who are struggling with their speed and hoping for a breakthrough. Dark Horse

No matter you making light of it, 20:10 is a very good time for a 50 year old man. I was happy for you when you reported this. It is very difficult for a 15 mile per week runner to achieve any kind of consistent speed over a race distance, even just 5K, because you never can develop that deep base. However, in running we are always attending to two systems, aerobic development, or what is called the "base" and the anaerobic fitness, or sharpening, that allows us to race well. Because of your knee problems, getting that endurance base has always been a challenge for you. However, you are in good health, you obviously keep the rest of your body strong and flexible, and as long as you are judicious in the way you allocate your miles and time on your feet to keep from getting hurt, you should be able to develop and sustain that anaerobic sharpness. It will not help you run a fast marathon, but you will be very respectable in short distance races, as you have demonstrated already last month. for you it will always be a tough balance, unless your knees heal up, but you seem to be managing this quite well. Spareribs

Speed, or the lack of it, is a mystery. Anyway, I thought this experience was curious. I'm not sure what practical lesson is to be drawn from it, but perhaps it will encourage others who are struggling with their speed and hoping for a breakthrough. Dark Horse

As someone who has been in a slow spell for quite awhile, I found this interesting. I don't think I'll try your approach since I'm sort of wimpy but you've given me hope that one can come back. I'm glad it worked out well for you. TomS

I am not at all a fast runner, but for me it is true that I tend to run my fastest after the first 3-4 miles. I just figured that I take a long time to warm up.