I want to run faster!

I like to run fast. I like to win stuff, conquer stuff, be awesome, all of that. I'm not there yet, and I know that. But I will get there!
My body really wants to run at a 6:15-7:15 pace (this is per mile), but I can't maintain it right now. Legs, I promise to raise my fitness level, and one day you can move at your preferred rate!

Really though, right now I'm doing most of my long runs at roughly a 10 minute pace, sometimes a bit faster. My two fastest runs have been just under 9 minute pace, 8:52-8:54 per mile, average.

This is what I've been doing the past couple weeks, at my current fitness level, not necessarily in this order. I am trying to learn to listen to my body (and reading Runner's World), so I adjust workouts accordingly. It's been a long time, so my listening skills are definitely in the working-on-it stage, but we're doing pretty well.
2 days of long slow runs at ~10 minute pace, ~3.5 miles
1 day speed work - typically some form of fartleks or tempo runs
1 day faster pace, this is where I just broke 9 minute pace, 3 miles
1 day slightly slower, something like 9:20ish, 3.5 miles

Today I did fartleks. Always exhausting! Today when I started them, I said, body, go! And my body went...at a 6:18 pace. In fact, my first 4 fartleks were all 6:40 pace and under. This is much faster than I can go for more than a minute at a time right now, but I want to work up to this pace for longer amounts of time.

When I got back to running a few months ago, I was having trouble maintaining a 10:30-11:00 pace for more than, say, a mile. Already I have improved so much, and I am really excited! Guys, this is so cool!

Building Up

I've been running consistently this time for a few months. I can do 3.5 miles pretty easily now. It took a while to get there though.

My boyfriend and I started running together a few months ago. We started with 1 mile out and walked 1 mile back. We did this 3 days per week. Then we slowly increased the amount of running. Eventually we were running the full 2 miles. Over the next few weeks, we gradually built up to 2.5 and then 3 miles. We also added a 4th running day.

I am now up to 3.5 miles most days. Some days I just run 3 miles, and last week I started to add speed work. I'm really excited about getting faster now, and since I haven't done this in a long time, it's very important that I don't push myself too hard. I'm running 5 days per week - unless a commitment keeps me from a day, in which case I try to make it up over the weekend but am not upset with myself if I can't. When you have a sporadic Los Angeles schedule like I do, it's important to not beat yourself up over things you can't quite control.

Eventually, I will increase my distance again. One day, I'd like to run a half marathon and eventually a full marathon. For now, I'm going to see how I fare in a 5K. I can definitely do the distance, and I want to see if I can do it competitively!

Introduction

Hello! My name is Daisy. I'm just a normal girl who likes to run!

I was a competitive runner in high school but lacked the motivation to find time to keep up my training in college. I have participated in many other sports, and I've found that running is still my favorite. Over the years, I have been a casual, on-and-off runner, in and out of good shape, blah blah blah. Now I want to become competitive again! I also want to motivate myself to keep up with my running schedule so I can actually stay in shape, and I thought blogging might help.

Dixie was my nickname in high school, given by my cross country coach. I guess I came to identify with this name as a runner. And now Dixie is back!