Speed Play and Strenght Training

Winter was unkind to my pace. I am not a fast runner by any means, I guess you would consider me a mere jogger at my pace of 10:30 minute miles. But coming out of this winter and wet/cold spring, I have dropped into the 11 minute mile catergory! I even ran this winter and spring....mostly outside with many layers of clothes on. So, being a running newbie, I have read many articles on the importance of adding speed training to your workouts. Today I did just that..jogged 2 minutes followed by 1 minute of faster pace. I could not go at an all out sprint because there was no way that I could maintain that for a full minute. Surprisingly, during this speed variation, I knock off 30 seconds from my mile time. After this, I went to the high school stadium and ran up the stairs. I would run up twice then worked on my running form. I repeated this 4 times. The last run up the stairs was not graceful! I think that my legs were protesting :) For strength training, I went to the gym and lift weights. I only did my arms, shoulders, chest and core.