Split times, pace run... Fartlek!

Right before we went out for the 20 mile run before Boston, one of the women asked me what my pace time was. I told her all I wanted was to finish. She looked at me funny, laughed and said I could run with her group. About five and a half hours later I met her back on the bus. I had finished about two and a half hours earlier and was trying to get my hands to work again. She was confused because before we went out I had told everyone that I would probably be dead last. I had no idea of how fast I could run and running for the first time in a group of runners I was sure I would look like a fool. That day I ended up being the second girl to finish. This is when I learned that there is a whole dictionary full of terms just for running. Needless to say I had a lot to learn.
When training clearly you can become obsessed with timing. Everyone's goal is to finish as fast as they can. You spend months training just to cross the finish line that day. I train on my own. Running for me started out as a way to lose weight and ended up being my sanctuary. When I go out for a run, I just go and run. I usually have a particular distance in mind, but sometimes you feel really good and keep running. Other times you crawl to end of your mileage. There are various types of runs. Short, medium and long runs. Short runs are usually for speed and power. This helps build endurance and helps with your split time. Split ime is your pace per mile. Basically you go balls to the wall. When I started running I had no clue but I was already mastering this art on the treadmill. I hate treadmill running but when you live in the land of snowstorms, you get used to the piece of crap. I would get on the treadmill, warm up for a mile then book it for about 3-4 miles. People would always look at me like what is she doing, but a girls got to do what a girls got to do!
Medium runs are fast and slow, also known as Fartlek, no kidding look it up! I was doing this as well, but I just thought I was losing steam and being lazy. I would go fast, get tired and remind myself, run fat girl run! I guess I just instinctively fartlek:). I have to give it to the Swedish, that is a great term.
Long runs are pace runs. This is when you get in the groove and just run. This is how you gauge what you can do. When you take a long run you have to pace yourself. If you go full steam at first, expect to blow out a hamstring. Or expect to walk a lot.
To this day, I don't really time myself. I know when I started and I know when I finish. I don't look at my phone to see what time it is, I just run. Too many head games are just going to screw you over in the end. Of course I train to go faster, but at the end of the day whether you ran a sub 3 hour marathon or a 7 hour marathon, you ran a marathon!! That's pretty damn amazing and something to be extremely proud of. Even if you run a 5k, 10k, half, full or ultra it's an achievement! So to all the scary terms.. Just enjoy it! When it stops being fun, why do it. 10 weeks to NYC!!