Yesterday, I joined my running club, the PARC, for intervals training.

The runs are every Tuesday at  Angell Field track at Stanford University.

This was the second time I joined in the Tuesday runs. Normally, Stanford U is a little far from home and where I work (both in San Jose). But this Tuesday was a special event. We were celebrating the time change (to daylight savings) and the availability of “more sunlight”, and so there was a raffle of interesting items from various sponsors etc. I won myself a little running cap from Zombie Runner.

Readers of this blog will know that I have been trying to get faster. This, for me, means an 8 min/mile pace for a 1/2 marathon sometime this year. The long term goal is to qualify for Boston, which means the same pace for 26.2 miles. Oh yeah, I am insane, all right…

So I have been doing some interval training. Generally, I have been doing laps of 400 meters at less than 2 min/lap followed by a recovery lap. Last week, I started running 800m intervals with Phil (a colleague). The target pace then was something like 1.50 min/lap. One lap is 400m or one round of the track.

Now, with the PARC folks, 1.50 min/lap is REALLY slow.

Picture this: I was doing intervals with the group of “slow” runners. I did the 800m runs at something like 1.35-1.40 min/lap pace and I was DEAD LAST in the group. Everyone else was at least 20 yards ahead.

Man!

Not only was I running faster (than with Phil), I was also running more. My own training is for 2×800. These guys were doing 5×800.

I am now quite motivated to drive to Stanford every Tuesday. Yes, I just love the pain. And the speed, of course.