I (Noel) want to be reflective about my running, and think about how I’ve changed as a runner over time, but mostly it comes down to two phases: Noel Before the Initiation of Track Workouts and Noel After Trackin’ it Up.
Before track workouts I ran because it allowed me the solo time to slowly clear my head and simply be present in my body – feet hitting the pavement, arms relaxed, abs slightly engaged, air coming in, air going out, ahhhh, gratitude practice, just this. I didn’t think to try and run as fast as I could – WHY would I do THAT? Everything changed when our group decided to get serious about training. I still have my solo slow fun runs, but thanks to Meghan our running group had to start “training” if we were to run a marathon. Haha! Psshhhttt. I can do that, no problem, was my first thought. That is, until Meghan was revving her little Honda engine outside my doorstep at 6:15 in the morning (i.e., pre-coffee) ready to drive our group to the UNC track. Noel Before the Initiation of Track Workouts had quickly become a thing of the past.
I like to observe my thoughts on the walk from the car to the track – the mental “psych-me-ups” is what makes me laugh. I can do this, I tell myself. Yeah right, it’s gonna suck, my cynical self says. Fire it up, my inner coach retorts. Forget about it, yells my slumbering self from the sidelines. You’re an athlete - DO IT – is the final phrase that ends the conversation.
Since I’m the resident track workout complainer, and being in DC away from my NC peeps, I skipped out on the last two Monday track workouts in favor of a “rest day.” (I did, however, strength and core train on Sundays, so my rest days were well deserved). Lucky for me though, my coworker Joel stepped up to the plate yesterday and decided to join me at the track for an after-work 15-minute warm-up, two 800m quick laps with a 90-second rest interval in-between (times six), and a cool-down of 10 minutes. We each had our ipod shuffles and warmed up no problem. Two sets of speed intervals in and Joel had fallen by the wayside in favor of doing pushups. I kept looking over to make sure he was working. He was. On the third set of speed intervals Joel’s brother Neil joined me on the track and put me to shame - talking about the Marine Corps marathon as I was huffing and puffing, running in the far right lane as I ran the inner circle, and sprinting around the track to clock in a six minute mile as I walked for a rest interval.
The really neat thing about track training with others is that they hold you up, no matter what. We each fell into different slots on the running continuum, yet we kept on going. If I was out there by myself last night, I would have stopped after three sets of intervals, but because of Joel and Neil I kept moving. Afterwards, I felt great. In fact, for me, one of the best parts of a track workout is not challenging myself and expanding my lungs and feeling my rubbery legs swiftly carry me the distance, it’s the celebratory teammate high-fives and overall rockstar feeling I get afterwards. Because of this, and because I want to be a better runner, I’ll continue to track it up, no matter what.
