I prefer going long since speed tends to = injury with me... 50 mpw, yeah I'm fine... cut down to 35 and do one day track session, suddenly I have shin splints!

But I do care about being fast and I really want to get fast. I'm slow right now. Can currently run around 10:30 mpm in a half... I really want to break 2 hours in 2007. Long way to go!

Nope. I could care less about going fast. I am just happy to be going at all.

My best half time is 2:18. If the next one is faster, it will be by accident, not becasue i trained to be faster.

When not training for the half, I am perfectly happy with four 5 milers a week.

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Patty

I'd love to do a 10K in less than 40 min again. With a broken & dislocated ankle 9+ years ago. I'm glad I can run and I'll take what I can get. Some times I feel like packing it in, but then the shoes go on and one foot goes in front of the other and I'm off to the races. Today I care about being able to do the bestest I can.

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Blessings, SteveP

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I think you are right in saying that it is relative. For me it's trying to achieve my best even though my best falls way short of some others but it does not make my effort any less impressive.
I love going to a race and seeing people from all walks of life trying to reach their personal goals all in the same event.
The great thing about this sport is it takes years for someone to realize their potential. I think it would be boring if I could do my best within a few months. You build on it and beating your PR's whether it's at a certain age or weight is thrilling because of the hard work involved to get there. It's all the more sweeter when you beat your personal best because it took years of building to do it.
I'm racing New Bedford Half Marathon tomorrow and will run what some think is fast and others will not. I'm hoping it will be fast for me.

Yes and no. I'd love to be fast, but fast isn't ever going to happen. I would be more than happy to be able to run at an average pace--say 10, even 11 minute miles, occasionally a sub 10 in a short race. However, I'm not even close, and frankly I don't have so much weight left to lose that it is going to make much difference. I'm just slow and I have to accept that.

I love to run, but I don't like having to do regular speedwork--it makes me hate it. Sometimes I like to run faster, and I do like to enter races. On occasion, I like to do something like hill repeats, but when I try to do this on a regular basis, I start to dread it and to dread running.

I guess if I thought that I had a snowball's chance in **** to get to something like an 8 min pace, it would be worth it, but I'm at a point where I'd have to bust my *** for a year, maybe more, to get to an 11 min pace. The way I've run lately, I wonder if I'll ever see 12 min again! LOL! That isn't worth it. I'm almost 50 and have run for almost eight years (all of them either obese or overweight). Even when I get to my goal weight (less than 20 lbs away) I don't really see that I'm going to improve that much.

BTW, I'm about the same pace as pcsronbo in the 1/2 marathon. Both 1/2s I've run this year were a lot slower than the ones I ran in 2006, but they were done while lugging extra post-fall marathon depression & holiday pounds. My next half on Sunday, 3/25 will give me a better idea of where I am compared to last year since I set my PR at this race last year and will weigh about the same going into it, maybe even a little less.

In my imagination though, I'm one of the swift!

Mary

It's each to their own whether you want to run fast, run long or maybe just run. And everyone has their own reasons for their choice. And the definition of "fast" is also each to their own.

One thing that gets overlooked sometimes is that to run a 10k in a time you consider to be fast is more of an achievement than completing a slow marathon. My opinion anyway.

Me, I like to run fast, and I care about my times. There are races every now and then when for whatever reason I don't care about my time. I'm on the injury comeback at the moment and am of limited running capacity. Hence my race times aren't that important just now, they're more of a training run. I do enjoy the relaxation of not having that pressure to perform. But it's just not the same. I miss the buzz of giving it my all, knowing I'm in good form (by my standards!), feeling motivated to get out there and put in the hard yards and the satisfaction afterwards. I want to get back there, I love it.

That's what I like, some like to do otherwise. But we're all runners, and the more people running the better

I care..... but it's all relative.

At 57 I don't look back much at my times 25 years ago, but I still love to run hard. I use to run hard all the time but now I save my hard runs for my races and sporadic speed work. Although I'm an overweight older runner, I've been blessed with enough speed occasionally to place and sometimes win my A.G.

I don't think I'll ever lose the desire to get the adrenalin rush from a hard race or training run.



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Jim[/URL" target="_blank">

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Hang on just as long as you can
Get up whenever you fall
Shake it off, Boys, and go 'round again
Don't be hangin' your life on the wall .....Guy Clark