A few years ago, an old coworker challenged me to a race. He is a CrossFitter/sprinter type; I enjoy half marathons and marathons.
A mile, to him, is “long distance.” A mile, to me, is a sprint. We decided that a 800 (half a mile) was the optimal distance, and after several false starts, we decided that we’d race the last week of June.
As it just so happens, I’ve been on several dates with a fellow who, as one of his side hustles, coaches high school track. We ran an 800 as a baseline the other day — 3:36. I have no idea what my “real” mile pace would be, but I thought it’d be a hair faster than 7:00, so I was a little disappointed in that time but took it as just what it was — a baseline.
So, this fellow has been texting me speed workouts (that’s romance to me, people), and short distance speedwork? Yowzers. Marathon speedwork usually means running 7-8 miles.
Yesterday’s workout:
1 mile warm up
2 400s
1 800
1 mile cooldown
There’s a track at 27th and 10th I’ve been running at sometimes, but I *thought* there was a track right by the West Side Highway at that soccer field there, so I ran over there. Spoiler alert: there’s not. No problem, I figured I’d just run the speedwork on the WSH or on a pier.
This fellow wanted me to run the 400s in 85-90 seconds. LOLLLLLL.
The second one, I was DETERMINED to run faster…and I did! It took me a bit to stop the app, but I think the .25 was about 1:46.
I accidentally deleted the 800, but I ran it in about 3:40 because my fast-twitch muscles were DOOOONE.
I jogged/hobbled the mile back home and thought about how I’d much rather run 20 miles than attempt to sprint but that this is a fun challenge.
Long distance runners: do you ever try to run shorter distances/races and also want to go curl up and die under a rock, or just me?
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