“Lactic Acid!!!”  Back in high school track and cross country this was one of our favorite battle cries and was trudged through tortuous workouts.  If it don’t hurt, it ain’t working…or so our thoughts were back then.  Our workouts were hard and fast, but in the end they paid off.  Some of my personal bests include a 4:56 mile, 2:07 half mile, and 17:31 5K.  Not that those are wow, super-speed world-class times, but they’re not too shabby either.

Well, high school is far behind me…well, not that far…I’m only 29…but the speed of those days is behind me.  Or is it?  Yesterday was my first speed workout since…well, since high school.  I’ve started a new training program to get my half marathon time down to my goal of 1:44.  Up to now my best is 1:50:27.   That time was at the Long Branch Half Marathon – 2008 edition.  So it’s been a year, and I’m ready to chase after that new goal.  I’m hoping to get there by the Virginia Beach Rock N Roll Half Marathon on September 6 I’m doing with Team in Training.

So back to the speed workout.  My workout was to be a 5 minute warm-up, followed by 7×400M repeats with a 2 minute jog in between each, followed by a 5 minute cool-down.  I was wondering how I was going to do this without a track.  So I’m poking around my Garmin, and BONUS!, it can do interval workouts…complete with warm-ups, cool downs, and “rest” time in between intervals.  AMAZING.  I was so excited to get out there and do my thing…to see where my body was.  It even does like countdown beeping when you’re almost done with an interval or a rest period, and a little “finished” jingle at the end.  I LOVE MY GARMIN!

So my final times for the 400s were 1:35, 1:29, 1:28, 1:37, 1:30, 1:37, 2:05.  I had to just run the last one normal  because my thigh started to twinge a little.  But I was definitely impressed with myself…I haven’t run that fast in ages.  I’m definitely looking forward to my training over the next 15 or so weeks, and I’m looking forward to the race.   The lactic acid definitely made itself known last night, but all in all it was a good time.