Date with the Devil

I'm sure your mind conjured up all sorts of topics for this subject line, and most likely they are all wrong...

My training for my upcoming 5K is entirly different than the half marathon I ran last month. My concern with the half marathon was to finish. My biggest battle was legs of jello. I want speed with my 5K. In training so far, my legs haven't held me back. I just can't seem to get enough oxygen! My lungs burn the harder I push. They feel so full of air they feel like they will pop. Yet, it's not enough.

Today, my training consisted of the Devil's Ladder to help build speed and hopefully teach my body better use of oxygen. A Devil's Ladder starts out with a warm up, then you run a designated distance and recover, run farther, and recover, run even farther, recover, run not quite as far, recover, run a little less, and cool down. No doubt it's called the Devil's Ladder because you feel like you're in hell...

I ran half a mile warm up then ran a hard 0.1 mile, recovered 0.1 mile, hard 0.2, recovered 0.1, hard 0.3, recovered 0.1, hard 0.4, recovered 0.1, and back down again. I felt good, but at the end I know I could have pushed harder (definately didn't think so during the run, I was wondering why the heck I was torturing myself). One thing I have learned from Aaron is that it's not a "good" workout until your breakfast is out on the track...

It's 9 days to the race and I am pretty excited. Goal: Sub 26 minutes. Can I make it? If I decide it's worth it when my frozen butt is on the course next Saturday morning.