That’s what colleagues @ work are for

Already yesterday I was too tired to go on the track and did a slow 15km instead. Same indicators today. Yawning after lunch, hunger at 3pm, and general reluctance to go on the track to do 10 x 1000m in a kind of breath taking pace at 3:20min. The way from the desk in the office to the changing room was filled with considering the alternatives, going to that track and breathing out my lungs or continuing my walk right to the car park, drive home and take a nap on the sofa. I somehow tended to opt for the latter, if not, yes, if not colleagues appeared here and there and the brief conversations quickly turned to what training I was up to today. Well, saying “off home on the couch” isn’t relly an option, when maintaining a Super-marathon-man image.

Mari, herself into wellness, but I think she thinks I’m just crazy with running those 42.2km in one stretch, she caught me in the cafeteria and just fired me up. “you definitely need to go on the track, no pain, no gain”. Well, if even she says so, I can’t just ignore the inviting changing room (= full of clothes and bags lying around on all the benches). In I went. But while changing some of the tiredness came creeping back, or did I want it to creep back? And again thoughts about how nice it would be to just jump into the car and stretch arms and legs on that comfy couch at home.

I was interrupted as Kari, another brother in arms on the streets of Berlin in 6 and half weeks, rushed into the changing room. He just popped in to drop of his office clothing for tomorrow, he’s going to run in to work in the morning and back home again in the afternoon, 26km altogether, not bad. What am I up to, he asked. “Well, on to the track and doing 1000m intervals”. “Oh dear, the hardest training of all” he replied. There I stood, the shirt half open. There was no way back to closing those buttons again. Now after all this bragging about today’s training, there’s only one way. Going there and doing those bloody interval runs.

And what kind of runs those were in the end. 9 x 1000m with four of those in 3:19min, on average 3:21min. They were nine, because the calves started to get hard after eight runs. One of the best training sessions in the recent weeks.

Tomorrow? Well, hill runs of course, 10 x 2 min uphill. The heart rate again somewhere around 180. For sure!

Tags: colleagues, interval training