Finding new gears and check out this Wheaties Box

Why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow. I want to learn to run fast.
- Emil Zatopek
(Zátopek is probably best known for his amazing feat of winning three gold medals in athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He won gold in the 5km and 10km runs, but his final medal came when he decided at the last minute to compete in the marathon for the first time in his life and won. He also broke the existing Olympic record in each of the three events.)

Since the National Marathon, I have recovered well I think. I was sore from the marathon (Saturday) until about Tuesday. Wednesday I decided to play basketball and run about 2.5 miles afterwards. I then became really sore until Saturday so I didn't run Thurs-Sun. I started running Monday this week with some speed work which consisted of running 8 1/4 mile sprints basically as hard as I could go. My average time was around 90 seconds and I did them all consistently. A summary of the couple weeks is shown below.

Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Marathon	sore	sore	sore	basketball+2.5 mi.	sore	sore

Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu
sore	sore	speed work 3 mi.	3 mi. easy	speed work 2 mi.	speed work 4mi.

See I have changed my short term philosophy about running. Since January it has been all about the long run no matter how slow it may be. It was all about building the ability to run 20+ miles. Usually when I set off on a run I think, "now I'm going to run 4 miles so I need to run at a pace so that I can easily finish 4 miles." Now I am shifting gears. I am trying to train fast to run fast. This week, every time I've run, it's either been in warmup/easy mode or as hard as I can go mode. I've found I can run for a mile at about a 6:40-6:55 pace and then I feel like I need to stop for a minute. In other words I am running so hard that I am maxing out my lung capacity. I noticed that even around mile 20 in the national marathon I wasn't breathing hard. It was all about the slow pace and muscle endurance. I need to build my speed now.

Some of the guys at work snagged some of the low resolution professional pictures taken of me at the marathon and came up with this. They were taken just as I was struggling at the end to make the 4 hour mark so my face is beautiful.