Thats right, I am the worst training partner ever...
I don't wait for others
I determine the workout (no suggestions)
I don't keep an even pace
I forget what interval we are on
I have to stop and go to the bathroom
My tummy hurts
I let someone else lead and sprint the end every single time
But luckily, some people agree to train with me...and I don't have to pay them or anything. Today it was Matt Stevens, Tim Marr, and his wife Mariane. We are all in slightly different phases, Matt is gearing up for the Chicago marathon and learning to fit running in between being a great father and a great teacher, Tim is coming back from a short break and trying to work on his running, Mariane is doing exclusively run training for the first time and gearing up to race for HPU in the fall. As for me, I am in a strange in between phase of building strength for a half marathon in Japan in September while not overdoing it. As a checkpoint I am going to Wharf to Wharf in late July. Mostly because I hear its a kickin good time, but also because I feel like its good to get your tail kicked every once in a while. It helps with my arrogance...speaking of my arrogance, it rears its ugly head in just a sec.
Ok back to the workout, 3 X 2.9k loops of Kapiolani park. 90 second rest. Essentially this is a tempo run which you can break up in your mind. With the added bonus (for me) of getting to run a bit faster than I normally would in a tempo. I like these workouts, and to be honest I never thought I would say that. Today, my legs felt like crapo, and there is no good reason why, but hey it happens.
As I said at the beginning of my post, I can be...shall we say...difficult. I gave a 2 minute speech before we started about keeping the first interval relaxed and just getting in to a good rhythm. Very superior of me considering I was running with Matt (more state titles than I have and not to mention the resident champ of the marathon last year) and Tim (pro triathlete) but they put up with my arrogance...thankfully.
I will give you one guess as to what I did as soon as we started...yep, I took it out hard. Whatever thoughts we had of staying in a group were shattered from the get go, and Matt and I tried trading the lead, but of course I had to cut him off at strange times and surge like a 8th grader. First interval: 9:31. Not unnecessarily fast, but it felt harder than it should have.
Right before the start of number 2 I only said one thing..."lets try and pick it up on the back part of the park" seems like a simple goal. We started off again and what happens when we get to the back of the park...my legs feel junk and I slow down...awesome. Matt leads the whole back part of the park till the last 1k, when I kick by him in a fit of glee. Second interval: 9:14.
No talking before the last one..Matt tells me he may or may not stay in for the whole time. It would appear my surging and cutting him off and just sitting and kicking on him makes for a hard workout...who would have guessed. That made this one a bit more of a solo mission, and as I rolled down the final straight slowly dying as the wind blows in my face (approximate estimate at wind speed, 212 mph), I could not help but think that I made this just about as difficult for myself as I possible could have....nice work Toddicus. Third interval: 9:12.
I feel like I have a lot of work to do before I am able to run an even paed marathon, but this is where is starts. While it might seem fun to run the first half with the Kenyans and see what happens, I don't think Honolulu would be a positive experience if I am toast at 14 miles. The body is not working perfectly at the moment, but with some help from Jaco and some long running, I think I should be good to go. I do consider myself sort of an 8 week specialist when it comes to building up, and so I suppose I do have plenty of time before September half marathon season begins.
T
