Pondering my running future.
I read about a friend of mine today, on facebook, who completed her first 5km race in 27:11 and it got me thinking about my own running. She did an amazing job and I wonder if I will ever be able to run that fast. I know it takes time and work to get there, but I really wonder if some people are just built for distance rather than speed. I can push myself in the last 5km of a 21km race and run 6:30 a km but I’m most comfortable around a 7 something km which doesn’t bother me, but I’d like to be faster. I guess maybe I need to focus on speed when I get back to running and have completed my first race back. I’m planning to run a 15km race that I did last year while pregnant. I’ll kick it’s butt, boost my confidence and start training for my half in April 2012, and then my marathon in October 2012. I may have to do a few longer runs before the half to ensure I have enough full training time. I guess doing speed work in the winter won’t be so bad because I won’t have to run outside for as long (time wise) and won’t get as nasty sweaty as I would in the summer.
Maybe this is something I need to bring up to my running BFF/future marathon coach, since I really want to finish my marathon in under 5 hours. I’m not sure if that is crazy ambitious or not really a big deal and can be done really easily. Any other runners out there have some insight for me, or websites that talk about average speeds of female runner?