"He does not believe in speedwork when training. He teaches, and claims to practice, that slow run. In fact he advises a run walk, with at most only running 4 out of every 5 minutes if you want to race at 9 miles per minute."I tried speedwork for the first time this past week as my wife and I committed to running a ½ marathon in October (Detroit Free Press). I have a love/hate feeling about it. The version I did was to sprint a ¼ mile, walk a ¼ mile, etc. I did it at a high school track and did 3 miles this way. I hated the first few reps until I got the hang of it. By the third rep, I was able to get my breath about 100 yards in to the walk part. The love part is two-fold. First, I did the whole run in just over 26 minutes, so I was impressed with what I did in the sprints as I really was walking at a slow, but decent pace. Second was where I felt it and where I can see myself getting stronger.I can see where I need this. I just started playing in a coed kickball league last Monday night, and I was surprised at how sore my legs were, considering how much running I do.Since committing to the ½, I am really pleased with the shape I am already in. Backing down my pace from my normal 3 or 4 mile run, I have had runs of 6 ½ and 7 ½ over the past week and a ½ averaging a pace of round 9+ minutes. (I have, and recommend, the Garmin 201, which makes the whole pace and tracking thing so nice).I get a feeling that stamina will not be an issue, but rather strength and dealing with aches and pains. I have a laundry list of sports injuries and had both my feet operated on in 2001 and they ache a bit. But, I have finished all of my recent running without being winded at all. My plan is to keeping adding a mile to my long run each week and a ½ or so, so I should be at 10 miles by mid July or so. I figure I’ll do the sprint thing every week to 10 days as time permits.I know this doesn’t jive with any training schedule, but I have to do what time permits and what mood I am in.