Need for Speed(work)

I had this great idea to attempt to run approximately 3.1 miles as fast as I could. Now I'm not sure what I was thinking seeing as I haven't really run faster than a 10 min mile since before the marathon. Early October was probably the last time I did any speedwork. I set out and I should have known immediately that this was a bad idea. I hadn't gone 2 minutes when my lungs started burning. I could make a bunch of excuses as to why my run didn't go as planned....I was tired, my lungs hurt, I think I'm getting a cold, my shorts kept riding up, blah blah blah. When it comes down to it, I haven't been training to run fast.

I have been running nice, pretty leisurely runs of around 10:30 to 11:00 min/miles for both my long and short runs. While this is great and will definitely aid in increasing my endurance, it isn't helping me get faster. My main goal for this year is to successfully complete a triathlon. The run in the tri is 3.1 miles and I want to be able to complete that portion of the race as fast as I can. Right now, that isn't very fast.

What is my plan? I am going to start (when I get back from my trip) to add at least one day of speedwork a week. Once Marisa starts her tri training I think that will help too. I decided at the beginning of the year I wanted to get faster but so far I haven't actually done anything to help me do so. It is time for me to pick up the pace, literally......