Unintentional Speed Training

So, the title of this blog is the reason that I will not be able to go to the gym daily, as I would like. This entire school year, students in the track and field club have begged me to join their practice one day. So, finally I decided on a week when I would attend, and I asked the teacher in charge if she wouldn't mind allowing me to join. She answered gleefully that they would love to have me there. I didn’t know what I was getting into. I innocently assumed that I would just go there for about an hour during their often three-hour long practice and then just go home. I also assumed quite mistakenly that it would be really basic stuff and not physically demanding at all.

Gentle jog!

Then, yesterday, the teacher in charge of the club came up to my desk and asked me how fast I can run four kilometers. Awkwardly, she and I spent about ten minutes trying to do conversions and figure it out. I told her that I generally do distance running, and that I can typically do about 10 kilometers in about 56-57 minutes which is about 9 minutes per mile. She started furiously writing and trying to calculate what this meant in terms of km. I felt like a moron for not being able to figure it out quickly.

 

Kil...o...meter?? What??

Anyways, eventually we figured it out. I assumed she asked me out of mere curiosity, an assumption I quickly realized to be a grave error when she began to decide with which group of students to place me with for their training on the day I would attend. She stroked her chin pensively and said, “you know, with some training we could get you down to 4 kilometers in 17 minutes.” My eyes widened. That is crazy fast in my world, where I am accustomed to running long stretches at slower paces. She continued, “you are interested in speed training, no?” I felt obligated to answer yes to her eager expression. “Of course,” I managed to say in a weak voice. And thus, with the utterance of two words, I agreed to participate in a speed-training regimen. Goody.

This is just not me...