Speed Work - A Conversation

The Cast

Me: You know Me. The guy who writes this blog and stuff.

Me+: The little voice inside my head. Me+ comes up with a lot of crazy stuff, then expects me to execute that stuff. Running a marathon when I had never run before? His idea. I have a love/hate relationship with this guy.

The Conversation

We arrive at the track, where I have to do the day's workout: Three 1 mile repeats for 6 miles total.

Me+: OK lets warm up. Slow OK? You will have time for fast in a little while.

Me: Yeah, yeah... A lot of people at the track today. Lots of kids training and stuff.

Me+: They always block the track hope it won't be problem... you know, why don't we make this workout more interesting? I got a great idea.

Me: You and your "great ideas". I'm still feeling the "great idea" from last week.

Me+: Oh come on! we had to go for that mileage record. We just had to!

Me: Right...

Me+: Tell you what, instead of running the repeats all out, you will do something different in each one. You just have to follow my instructions OK?

Me: I got a bad feeling about this.

Me+: Mile's almost up. You ready? 

Me: No...

Me+: Great. For the first repeat, you're gonna run in the high 14's. Aim for a 15 minute mile.

Me: I can do that easy! Not for long but...

Me+: Just do it. Mile's up. GO!

First Repeat

Me: This is easy. Not even breathing hard.

Me+: The point here is to maintain a faster pace than normal. Get a feel for it. This is how you should run the marathon.

Me: I don't know. I can't even think about being able to do that right now.

Me+: You will. That's what you are training for.

Me: Done! 14:50...

Me+: See? Not bad at all. Can't get more accurate than that.

Me: (smiling) Well...

Me+: OK, after the half-mile cool down, you are gonna run the next repeat a bit faster. Try to keep the watch in the 13's.

Me: 13's... I can do 13's. 

Me+: Of course you can. Half - mile is up. GO!

Second Repeat

Me: (breathing a bit harder now) A lot of people passing us.

Me+: Yeah, so?

Me: This is supposed to be a "speed" workout!

Me+: Yeah, so? Speed is relative.

Me: They are warming up! This is embarrassing. I'm doing  speed work and the entire track is lapping me.

Me+: Who cares! Besides, they don't know you are doing a speed workout. Right?

Me: I don't know, they can surely hear me breathing hard when I pass them by...

Me+: WATCH OUT!

Me: (avoiding running over a track coach) Yikes! Sorry! (Under his breath) Totally your fault for moving AROUND THE MIDDLE OF THE FREAKING TRACK doing nothing.

Me+: He wasn't even paying attention.

Me: You notice he is fatter than me right? Hey (it starts to rain) its raining!

Me+: Yeah, so?

Me: Everyone is leaving to take cover.

Me+: Yeah, so?

Me: Dude! Its raining! I'm the only one on the track.

Me+: And... Done! How did you do?

Me: I don't know. I started counting the repeat at 2.5 miles and finished at 3.5 miles so I don't know what the total time was for that mile. It felt faster.

Me+: OK...

Me: The watch was on 13's the whole way. Maybe in the 12's a few times. Had to be 13 something.

Me+: Well, the next one starts at 4 miles so we won't have any trouble keeping track of that one. You are gonna love it too.

Me: What?

Me+: Now, I want you to run the best mile you can. All out. Go crazy.

Me: What?! But  I just ran 4 miles! How fast can I possibly run now? 

Me+: We are about to find out aren't we? I want you to leave it all on the track.

Me: I'll leave you on the track...

Me+: No time for talk. Go!

Final Repeat

Me: (panting) Legs... hurt...

Me+: Normal... quite normal.

Me:(pointing at a guy in a red shirt) I... just... lapped that guy! 

Me+: Fabulous. He's walking. Don't slow down!

Me: Legs... lungs! Burning!

Me+: You're doing great!

Me: Murder... Death... Kill!

Me+: Isn't that from a movie? Go! Almost done! Final stretch!... Done!!!!

Me: Dear Lord! It's over.

Me+: You did awesome! 11:15!

Me: What?! I think that's the fastest I have ever run a mile. Even after all that!

Me+: I told you. How are you feeling?

Me: I wanna kill myself.

Me+: Now come on. Really?

Me: But first I'm gonna kill you.

Me+: It wasn't that bad!

Me: Make it look like an accident... I don't think you will be missed by many.

Me+: What about your readers? They would miss me.

Me: You are worrying about 5 people? Don't worry. I'll break it to them gently.

Me+: (laughing) Cry baby!

Me: I'm never running again.

Me+: So... tomorrow. 4 miles easy?

Me: Around five-ish?