Choose your partners well...

Saturday, March 27, 2010

“What a perfect day for a run,” I thought as I exited the car in the park. It was sunny and probably fifty degrees. Although my legs had been sore on the hike the day before, I was feeling pretty good and anticipating a very successful run. My plan was to do a park perimeter run, which should be around six miles from my starting point. That would have meant about 42 minutes in my prime, but I was thinking closer to an hour in my current condition.

I started up the same hill I’d hiked yesterday, which I like to do to get the worst uphill out of the way early in the run. The down side is I’m not really warmed up when I hit it and it totally sucks the life right out of me…which just totally sucks.

I reached the top – it’s only about a quarter mile long – not feeling too poorly, which is a major accomplishment these days. Yes – this was going to be an excellent day! I changed my original plan a little so that I would be running hiking instead of bridle trails. I was heading down one of my favorites when I noticed a runner on the cross trail I was approaching. Panic set in as I realized I knew him – it was Reza. He was a high school runner I’d worked with who owned pr’s of 4:20 in the mile, 9:27 for two miles, 15:59 for the 5K – and those were all in high school. He was faster and stronger now. I was forced to make a quick decision. If I called to him, he might suggest we run together, which could mean…I would die.

In a soft whisper I said “Reza…” while stepping on a stick, which snapped loudly. He turned to look. Damn…

“Hey Mr. Rolf,” he called, stopping his run to wait for me.

I figured to find out my situation quickly. “Where you runnin?”

“Wherever you are,” he responded.

“Shit,” I thought.

Oh well. Payback’s a bitch. I’ve been told by a couple of folks I’ve trained over the years that they found it annoying that I talked to them – and expected answers – while putting them difficult workouts that weren’t bothering me quite as much. Reza was about to even the score for so many accounts. Too bad they wouldn’t be there to enjoy it.

“I’m running pretty slow – are you sure you want to tag along?”

“Yeah…sure. I’m racing tomorrow and just trying to loosen up today. Go as slow as you want,” he said.

Double shit. Here I was suffering my ass off and he was doing what I was doing…to loosen up for a race tomorrow? I could have slapped him, but I was way too tired.

I’d met up with him after fifteen minutes of running, so that meant I’d have to deal with him for another forty-five. Triple shit. Yeah…I was going to die.

Actually though, it turned out that…surprise, surprise…I did most of the talking. First – I told him about…you guessed it…the blog. He faked interest and told me he’d take a look. I’ll call him and tell him this one is all about our run. At least I’ll get another hit out of it that way…

I stopped to wring the sweat from my band about forty minutes in. I was drenched. I looked at him and wanted to puke. Not only was he not sweating, he was smiling and his hair was all in place. What the hell…

Youth is often wasted on the young. Ahhh…whadda ya gonna do? I finished the run talking away, though. It was harder than it would have been without the talking, but took my mind off of everything else. By the way, if you are going to CHOOSE a training partner…always go for someone who’s in worse shape than you. Much better for the ego. It has been my experience that people thirty-three years your junior and running seventy miles a week typically DON’T fit that criteria.

We reached my car first and he stopped for some stretching. He still had another mile back to his car. I told him how this was my first hard day back after 34 straight days of working out. He looked at me with surprise and said, “you always wrote days off into my training programs…always. So what’s up with that?”

“Do as I say…blah, blah, blah.”

He smiled again and started off down the trail – running now – not doing that thing I was doing when we were together. I collapsed into the car. I really have to be more quiet when running in the woods.

Run duration: 56 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm.

Calories burned during workout: 950.