Working on pace instead of distance

I love that I have really built my endurance up over the past year or so, but I don't love that my daily runs are slower than they used to be.  I know there are various things I can do about that, but that doesn't mean I will find the motivation to do them.  This week, I chose to abandon my notions of a daily minimum mileage, and decided to push myself each time I ran.  I wanted to run slower than race pace, but faster than I have been.


My main problem with running fast, is that as my lungs start struggling, my legs start hurting from the lack of sufficient oxygen. I know my legs are perfectly capable of running faster, as long as they are getting the oxygen they need.  However, I worry about making my legs work too hard without the oxygen they need, and overdoing it so that they can't recover quickly.  So, my plan this week was to make every run faster, but keep them short so that I would be done before the oxygen deprivation could really effect my legs.  I think I succeeded...I definitely ran some shorter and faster runs this week, and so far my legs still feel good!

I did jog on purpose for today's run, because I decided I should take it easier after hammering a 10k yesterday.  (I was all fired up after two days off from running, and photographing a trail race instead of running in it!)

This week : 

M : Pub Run 3.1 / 8:56 / 0 ft

T : run 4.6 / 7:24 / 318 ft

bike w/ Lauren 15.7 / 15.4 mph / 1253 ft

W : trail run w/ Morgan 5.2 / 8:42 / 515 ft

R : TRX 30/15 x 50

Sa : run 6.3 / 7:17 / 472 ft

Su : run 4.1 / 8:07 / 305 ft

total run miles : 23.4

total bike miles : 15.7