I've been running for more than 10 years now and I've never understood speedwork. I bypass all the articles in Runner's World magazine that are dedicated to it. My eyes glaze over when I see all those numbers.

It all just seems so confusing -- and mathematical -- 1600x4 at 7:32, 800x2 at 8:12. Huh? Say what?

First of all -- what's a 1600 (and what if there's not a track nearby...what's the equivalent in miles)? Second, how do I know if I'm running it at 7:32 and would it be bad if I ran it at, say, 7:36? And, for that matter, how do I even know how fast I'm running it -- do I carry a stopwatch? (Because you know I still haven't figured out the lap timer thingie on my Ironman Timex watch).

But, I also know that in order to run faster, I have to, well ... run faster.

So, today my schedule called for speedwork that involved a bunch of numbers and a track. I have a treadmill and zero aptitude for math, so I did it my way.

I'm calling it speedwork for (math) idiots. All you need is an iPod or radio. Just crank the treadmill up to a fast pace for one song (go ahead and challenge yourself, you only have to sustain it for 4 minutes or so), then dial it back down for the next song. One hard song, one recovery song, one hard song, one recovery song ... you get the picture. I also played with the incline some -- moving it up and down at different times.

The whole thing was kind of ... well, fun. As fun as speedwork on a treadmill can be, anyway. It was exciting to mix things up and confuse the heck out of my body -- it just never knew what was coming next.

I'm told that changing things up -- adding speed or a long run or a hillier route to your workouts -- can produce big results.

I guess we'll see.

P.S. There is an informal group from the Erie Runners Club that meet for track workouts (speedwork) on Tuesday nights at McDowell High School's track -- I believe at 5:30 p.m. (I'll confirm that when I get the ERC newsletter this week). I did that one summer years ago (before I had kids) and I saw a real improvement in my race performance that year. (I'd join the group again, but life is too complicated for me to commit to any after-work stuff right now.)