Speed work without the work

I have been a runner for years now. Almost 10 to be exact. Photo evidence of my first race and personal running mantra:

Also, Tim looks 12, but, moving on...

I have never really been fast, at the height of my best training year a few seasons ago (before kid #2), I ran a consistent 10 minute mile. My 5K PR is 29 and some change. Now that I am not running a full, I've decided to get faster!

I am currently run/walking, so my pace is particularly slow. This is an average run/walk for me:

This, by contrast, is a recent "all running" 2 miler.

I've never been a huge fan of run/walk for shorter distances because, let's face it, I CAN run that, I'm just choosing not to. 

So my first step in non-work Speed Work is to just run. Anything 4 miles and under is all running. From there, I think quantity of runs could do wonders for my speed! 

Thoughts?

I resolve... To quit!

First things first, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! Our Images were featured by Tiny Prints on their website so the gave us free cards this year, which was pretty awesome.

Granted we were the Appletons, which was hilarious, but it was so fun to have friends contact us and go, YOU ARE FAMOUS!

 The "Joy" card was beautiful, but we went with a different look for our real cards.

And now that it's the new year, resolutions abound. 2016 is supposed to be the year of the full marathon for me!

On December 13 though, I had a revelation. My training schedule called for 12 miles. I got up, went to church and set out on my long run around 1:00pm. 2.5 hours later, I was finished. 

And it hit me. I hate this.

Not running in general. Just the SUPER long run. I realized this afternoon run I went out on so nonchalantly, that I basically bonked on at mile 9, was really only a SHORT long run. I needed to do 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 milers before actually running 26.2 miles. Yes, it finally hit me. I was giving away HOURS of my life, and for what?! Did I really WANT to run a marathon?

The answer is yes, but the reasons are all wrong. Runnning the marathon is no joke and yes it would be cool to say I did it, but at what price? My body was in agony after 12, what would 18 have in store? And do I want to keep my lifestyle in check just to be prepared for that. Well that answer is no. No I don't.

So I quit! For New Year's I resolve to have fun running distances I love (5K, 10K & Half) and work on collecting Stories not Stuff. Unless the stuff comes from a story, like a medal, from a race. :)

Happy 2016!