[Today’s run: 1 mile warmup, then 10 220s]
I started “jogging” when I was about 21 years old.
I was not a jock in school. I had played a little bit of soccer in my last year of high school. But I can’t claim to have been very good at it. My attempts at basketball were pitiful, and the closest I got to football was 7th grade intramurals. In other words, I have never been “coached” for much at all.
I’m not sure what got me started with jogging (now we call it running, even though it is still mostly jogging). But I have been at it pretty steadily for almost 30 years. I suppose there have been a few weeks in that time where I didn’t go out at least one day. I’ve just been a 2-3 days a week, 2-3 miles a day type of guy. Over the years I’ve read stuff about running and conversed with runners and whatnot.
Two years ago, about this time of year, a guy I know talked me into training for a fall marathon. I did two things. I printed off a training schedule from the internet, and I hooked up with the Boardtown Runners Club in Starkville. The Boardtown Runners do a long run every Saturday morning. And the training schedule helped me fill in the rest of the week.
(we are getting around to the topic, promise)
Part of the training schedule was “speedwork”. I decided I’d better give it a try. And I found that I kind of like it. It makes me feel like I’m getting somewhere. There was one during the training last summer that was something like 18 repeats. That was a lot! It started to get kind of “different” after about 14.
Today we marked off about 200 yards. Who knows; probably shorter than that, something that takes more than 30 seconds to run. I wanted it to be long enough that we could measure our times with a handheld watch and long enough to have to focus our attention for an uncomfortable amount of time. We did repeats, running down to one end then walking back, three easy, three medium, three hard and one easy; trying to make each one faster than the one before (except for #10 of course). Number 8 was my fastest, just a bit more than 33 seconds, and I was bent over and gasping so I guess it was a workout.
I have to pause and psych myself up for the hardest ones. I know I can always just slow down. But I want to do well.
So, we are doing this now not because of marathon training but mostly to introduce my wife to some of her boundaries and how to push them back a bit. She did really well. I don’t know if she enjoyed it or not. But, her last “easy” lap was definitely quicker than her first three.