The track gang was waiting for me when I reached. I was late.
The intervals were 1k, 600m, 400m repeated five times with slow running as rest between them. It was brutal – at least for me.
I felt springy at the start and though it was tough, I knew I could make it through the pace targets. It’s a good feeling to begin a run with that confidence. The thing is to stay on pace and not overdo it at the beginning but also push enough. That balance.
The difference between me and the track gang is just that notch of experience. Perhaps because they are used to running shorter distances as sprints, they tend to go all out and end up taking several breaks.
Now that I know them a little better if anything else simply out of familiarity in running together, I have begun to speak to them a bit about pace, endurance and that feel of checking in on yourself.
But even as I imparted some information once or twice in the whole session, I would look at Ashwini and Monu as they ran ahead of me bouncing and bounding lightly, and shake my head in wonder at the beauty of their line, their stride, their arms. Even if they huffed and puffed at times, they looked elegant and strong.
Several times I noticed that their cadence was slightly lesser than mine but their stride length was definitely longer. If I tried to match them in cadence and in pace, I found myself loping forward in a more jumping motion. It was fun to experiment.
And finally, when it came to an end, I was spent. We all were.
Writing about Running 