speedy, not-so-speedy

I'm a slow runner, mostly by choice, partly because I'm not good enough to go faster. I've said it before, when I started running it was a complete shock to me, and I never thought I'd be any good. Lately I've been seriously toying with the idea of running a full marathon - which is something I never thought I could or would want to do. (Nanio, are we still planning for the Austin full in Feb?! I kinda am...but not alone!)

In reading up and thinking about this full marathon thing, I've decided that I really need to become faster. My reasons for this is two-fold. First, a full marathon at my speed would probably take me something like 5.5 or 6 hours to finish. That's a long time. That's a lot of singing bad songs loudly. That's just...more than I care to do. Faster means, less time spent running, less time distracting myself with mental long division problems (yes, I do this). Second, I think if I work on getting faster, I will become more efficient. Which means, it will be easier to tack on the miles. At this point I feel confident in my ability to make the distance (a half, no problem - a full with a bunch more long runs, sure). But really, how will I feel when it's all done. So I'm going to try and use this summer to improve my speed and efficiency. Which, hopefully, will just make things easier for me in the long run.

Today's Plan:	What I actually did:
20 minute warm up at 12 min/mile at 0% incline	a total of 19 minute warm up switching twice between 14 and 12 min/mile at 0% incline
3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 0% incline	3 minutes at 10.5 min/mile at 0% incline
1 minutes at 12 min/mile at 0% incline	1 minutes at 14 min/mile at 0% incline
3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 1% incline	3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 1% incline
1 minutes at 12 min/mile at 1% incline	1 minutes at 14 min/mile at 1% incline
3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 2% incline	3 minutes at 10.5 min/mile at 2% incline
1 minutes at 12 min/mile at 2% incline	1 minutes at 14 min/mile at 2% incline
3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 0% incline	3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 0% incline
1 minutes at 12 min/mile at 0% incline	1 minutes at 14 min/mile at 0% incline
Cool Down	Cool Down

I was off on the 1 minute walks because I forgot I was supposed to be doing that at my 12 min/mile pace and the 14 one was a pre-programmed button I could easily press. It was tough, but I was mostly impressed with my ability to stick with the 3 minutes and inclines. I'm generally a wuss about this. Additionally I was impressed with my warm-up, I really only slowed down twice, the first time to adjust my bra straps (I do not wear a jane strap, and the straps somehow had slipped too long - disaster!) The second time was because I was tired. But normally I run 5/1's, so getting through the near 20 minutes was an accomplishment in itself. (I only went 19 because I was just silly and read the clock wrong - I was eager to get going I guess).

Tracking time and distance seems silly for this, because we can all do math - I was on the treadmill at set speeds for set times, the distance/time is uninformative. However, the statistic I like now is Heart Rate. Here we go:

Heart Rate before intervals: 138
Max heart rate: 158 *questionably around than 80% of the max for a person of my advancing age.
Heart Rate after Cool Down: 116