run, rest, eat, bitch, buy things, cross-train, blog, repeat.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Accountability

Luckily, I had the forethought to convince Vandy-Montana to embark on these Tuesday speed workouts with me. Initially I think he thought I was crazy... "ummm... speed workouts? with someone slower than me? are you nuts?" But, when I explained that I wanted to do them at the track, he was pretty much in (not enthusiastically in.... but in, nonetheless). And even though we don't run the same pace intervals... it's really cool to have someone there to keep me honest.

Let's examine the ways I would slack if it were not for having a running partner on Tuesdays:
1. I'd definitely punk out of the number of repeats I did, sometimes. (Case in point: Last week. Ugh).
2. I'd probably wake up in the morning some Tuesdays and be like... ehhh... I don't need to do a speed workout today... there's always tomorrow for that (and then of course not do it at all that week).
3. I know he's going to ask me what my intervals were and I dont want to expose my latent pansiness, so I bust my ass to get the repeat numbers I'm supposed to get.

Sometimes peer pressure is a good thing.

This morning wasn't too bad. I ended up doing 4x800s at 3:52, 3:59, 3:57, and 3:52. I've definitely noticed that when I try to cheat on my recoveries that I have a harder time with the interval (that's what happened with that 3:59). So, I need to try and make sure I dont get lazy and do a full 400 meter recovery.

By the time I got home, I had just over 7 miles and I thought to myself... hot damn! I just earned myself a cheeseburger. And then Vandy-Montana was quick to point out that... ummm... no I actually didn't. Damn.

9 comments:

Van 1- Hall said...

bwahahaha the last paragraph was great

Vandy-Montana said...

darn-tootin'

J said...

Great job on the intervals! Glad you found a partner to make you get up and get going on them!! lol keep working at it!

Unknown said...

great intervals - I only do 400's, but they still kill. I have to have a partner as well or cheat I do. But we all know the speed helps soooo much. Keep it up.

Dr.Rutledge said...

Hi Amy,

I'm an academic physician (formerly at Harvard and Stanford) who found your blog while looking for the best health writers. I think your writing is great! I would like to feature you in the Running Community on Wellsphere, a top 10 health website that has well over 2 million visitors monthly.

If you would like to learn more, just drop me an email to Dr.Rutledge@wellsphere.com

Eric Gervase said...

Woh... Check that out. Amy is getting some street cred.

Good work on the intervals.

ECrunnergirl said...

A running partner makes a HUGE difference....its all about accountability :-) I would wuss out too if I didnt have someone there to push me through the hard stuff. Good job on the 'peats!!!

RunnerMom said...

Question--- on your recovery 400's (when you don't cheat them...), do you jog or walk or a combination?

Great job on the speedwork!

RunnerMom said...

Question--- on your recovery 400's (when you don't cheat them...), do you jog or walk or a combination?

Great job on the speedwork!