Speed work... Yeah, about that.

For some reason, I got it into my head last week that I should start doing speed work again.

Like most, I am not a fan of speed work, but begrudgingly added it to my training last year for the Shamrock half marathon. I wasn't very faithful about it, just kind of stuck it in every now and again.

I don't think I have done actual speed work since then - soooo, about 12 months ago.

Which is probably part of why last night was so so hard.

I met Greg on Monument Avenue. The plan was simple: run fast for one block, recovery run for one block, repeat until we had completed 3 miles. Seems easy enough, right?

We thought so too... and then after our first two sets of fast/slow, we were both panting and cussing during the recovery block.

I had forgotten how hard speed work is. By the end of the 3 miles I was positively worn out.

But as we stood (or in my case, laid) on the sidewalk stretching and catching our breath, we got our reward:

A lovely sunset behind Mr. Jackson.

Reminds me why I loved training on Monument Avenue last year, and how much I miss the scenery. It's a nice change from the purgatory of the vita course.

Once I got home an uploaded my Garmin, I discovered why the speed work was so exhausting: our average moving pace was 7:42 and our fastest pace during the speedy blocks hovered around 5:30. Usually, Greg and I hover between an 8:15 and 8:35 pace.

Yeahhhhhh.

Maybe we were just a little too speedy, eh?