One week post Disney Marathon after a couple of semi easy runs since, I decided to do my version of “speed work”. This is not Olympic speed work. Heck, it’s not high school speed work. It’s 53 year old 5’6” man speed work.
I started at 6.3 and ran steady for nearly 20 minutes, gradually cranking it up to a consistent 7.2 – 7.5 MPH. I was playing my “Running Hard” playlist which is laden with Beastie Boys, AC/DC and GNR. It was worth it.
7.5 MPH has special meaning to me. When I was just starting to lose weight I was on a treadmill at Disney’s Grand California Hotel. I was plodding along about 3 MPH. This young, fit guy jumped on the treadmill and seemed to be FLYING. I snuck a look over and saw the speed was 7.5 MPH. I was awestruck.
He was a tall athletic young man in his 20’s. It seemed impossible to ever do that for me. Now for most runs I try to go 7.5 MPH for a little bit, but not long. Today though I was over 7 MPH for most of the hour. So twelve and a half years later, to do 7.05 miles in under an hour … for a short middle age man in my 50’s, I’m OK with that.
Morbidly Obese to MARATHON Runner 