Speeding Up

It's been said that speed kills, but I'm not sure my speed is going to mortally wound anyone.

However, I am working on speed. I want speed. I need speed. I need a fast run on March 13 in order to beat my brother Danny into submission.

Danny, if you aren't aware, is the most physically gifted of the Bueno brothers, of which there are four. Danny can out-bench me, out-pull-up me, out-soccer me, out-basketball me, out-anything me. He's like that after enduring years of abuse from me, so I like to think that I toughened him up, and that he owes me a lot.

Still, on the 13th I am going to race Danny in a 5K and I know he's been training hard for it because he does not want to lose to me. Trust me, the last thing he wants to do is to lose to me - in anything.

I haven't been doing much speedwork recently because I've just been recovering from Surf City, but I have been doing a lot of hills the last few weeks.

Today, I went to the gym and had 30 minutes to get in a run. Even though I got there before the kid's club opened, I still had to wait until 8:10 (10 minutes longer than I'd intended) to get Kennedy in and head over to the treadmills. I got on, walked briefly and then got to running. I didn't count the mileage or time of my warm-up, by the way.

Here are my splits.

Mile 1: 9:44
Mile 2: 8:44
Mile 3: 8:02
Mile 0.4 : 3:30 (8:49 pace)

I started out too slow I think. Last Friday's seven-miler, I ran about a 9:13 mile to start, so I could have cranked the treadmill higher at the beginning.

Now, while this seems great, I will have to run faster than the 8:02 pace if I want to A) beat Danny and B) beat my one-and-only 5K time of 25:05. I know I can run faster than 8:02. I ran the first two miles of the Mission Inn 10K last year in less than 16 minutes, so I know I can do it. I just have to try and squeeze in at least one interval session here soon and maybe that will help me gain a mental edge that I need.

Also, I have another bit of good news. There is another FREE 5K nearby this month!! One of my good Loper buddies, Stella, told me about this race at the banquet, and I just ran across the Web site.

This one is called the Lefty's Family Fun Day & 5K, and it costs 0.00 to participate. The best thing about this one is that it's at the Auto Club Speedway, where they have the big NASCAR races. They just had one recently, and will have another big race in October. I'm not sure if the course itself is on the track but it's still awesome to have the chance to run at the speedway.

Not sure what my goal will be for that one but I do plan on running it. If I don't beat Danny, then I'll just try and beat his time in that one. If I do beat Danny, maybe I'll just run it nice and slow and that will serve as my victory lap.