
(Workout report from 12/24/2012)
Maybe I should have been suspicious when he said he wasn’t coming with me. Should I have believed that he couldn’t really move his right arm or bend his legs without severe pain after playing frisbee with the young folks for two hours on Friday night? Or maybe I should learn not to say things to him like, “I’d really like to be able to run faster.” Whatever the case, it was kind of him to set up his watch for me…
He was pretty excited to tell me about the 40/20 workout. The idea was to warm up for one mile, then do these fun sprints, then cool down. I have always liked to sprint. The sprinting would involve starting a minute with 20 seconds of slow jogging, followed by 40 seconds of all out sprinting, then cycle through that for 10 sprints. He said it was amazing how slow the first few sets of 20 seconds were and how long the last few sets of 40 second runs were.
I donned my winter running attire, including my Moc3’s, over a bandaid on the healing blood blister. The thermometer said 37 degrees Fahrenheit, but it had been raining. Plus, I was going to be running on a rubber track. I would do the sprinting with the moccasins, then see how my feet felt.
With two watches on my left wrist, I drove off in Greg’s car, headed for the track in good spirits. He had his radio set to KKGL 96.9, a classic rock station, which was playing a song I had never heard before. It was oddly appropriate though, being “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” by Tom Petty. Or maybe most rock-n-roll songs energize. At least temporarily.
The mile warm up went well, other than dealing with an icy breeze. I had opted to not even begin with my gloves and gator, wanting my fingers free for pushing the watch buttons. I also usually get fairly warm after about a mile, wanting to remove those things, and didn’t want to deal with it during the sprinting intervals. Next time, I will experiment with being too warm through the sprints. My hands were losing feeling up until the last couple of sprints.
After the second sprint interval, I was having a little talk with the non-present Greg in my head. I was saying, “I’m going to be crawling for the next sprint interval, unless I take a little longer break here. I think you will understand if I modify the workout so that I take an extra minute break every two sets of sprints.” I continued on with this plan, with his tacit approval. It was a matter of survival.
The last couple of sprint intervals were like one of those bad dreams where you are trying to move your legs, but not going anywhere. At least it felt surrealistic. The sense that I was moving at lightening speed was conflicting with the slow passage of rubber track under my feet. I was relieved to finish all 10 sprints, even if it was only with my modified approach.
The cool down was only really slow for about 1/4 mile. Then, I began to feel normal again. I finished a 1/2 mile of cool down in my Moc3’s. An additional half mile, completely bare footed, felt wonderful! I had to force myself to stop running, knowing that I needed to wait and see how my leg were going to respond to this level of intense sprinting. I was pleasantly surprised to find I felt like I could run more after that.
When I got home, the first thing I said to Greg was, “Everything you said about the workout was correct… except about the first few sprints being easy!” He laughed and listened while I told him how I had modified the workout. He said that as long as I was trying my hardest, it would benefit me. Since I could barely stumble run/walk after the last sprint, I think I tried my hardest.
Still, I actually feel like I would have fun if I went out and ran another 4-5 miles right now, just a couple of hours later. Weird, I know. I certainly wouldn’t have felt that way 6 months ago. I guess it goes to show that all his coaching really does work, if I stick with it. He doesn’t tell me what to do for every workout, but he guides my thinking and encourages me. Some days, I feel like one of those Olympic athletes who married their coach! 🙂