Learning to Run: Sprints

Despite feeling the beginnings of a cold coming on, I went for a run with Scott yesterday. I've heard that germs can't hit a moving target, and that sweating is good for you, so even though I wasn't feeling in top form, I got myself out there.

Surprisingly, it felt really good to run. Scott and I decided to take it somewhat easy and aim for just a twenty minute run. I fully embraced the "taking it easy" approach, while Scott on the other hand surged ahead after about the first 10 minutes of running together. That's kind of become our running method: start out together but then each find our own pace. I don't want to hold him back, so I don't mind it when he goes running ahead.

Scott has also embraced the running ahead then doubling back routine. He runs ahead maybe twenty feet then turns around and heads back toward me. After a few words of encouragement and running with me for maybe 30 seconds he surges ahead again. This repeats multiple times during the run, so he's probably running double the distance I am.

Yesterday I was feeling a little silly (perhaps caused by somewhat-sickness), and so after about the third time of Scott looping back, I changed things up. As he was turning around to run beside me I surged ahead, kicking it into high gear and leaving him in my dust. I laughed evilly ("Mu hahahahah") but he quickly caught up again, and I began to get winded and had to slow down. After I caught my breath I decided to play around again. "Look over there!" I said and left him behind again. We kept this up for the rest of our run, gassing it then slowing down again and again.

We finished on our final hill and I was pretty out of breath at this point, and happy to slow down and go back to walking. "That was fun," I said, to which he replied, "You know, we were pretty much doing sprinting drills." I of course refused to acknowledge that. I didn't want my fun tainted by the possibility that we were doing actual training. :)

This morning I can really feel last night's run in the backs of my legs. It's been a while since I've really been sore the day after a work out (which probably means I'm not working out hard enough). Might have to incorporate these "sprints" more in the future.