“200 meters hard then 200 meters at a medium pace,” our coach said.
We had little paper maps in our hands and were studying the route. It wound around thru the shady neighborhood for 600 meters. She had already set out traffic cones beside the curb to mark the 200 meter intervals.
“You’ll run 200 hard then 200 medium out 600 meters and then back for a total of 1200 meters. Rest a bit. And do it again.”
She looked around to see if there were any questions.
“How fast should I run?”
“Oh, a hard pace and then medium.”
“But how fast?”
“Hard, say 80% effort. And then medium, say 60% effort.”
“Ok…” drawn out followed by a long silence. “…I’m not good with percentages. How fast should we run?”
Now I confess, then when running, my math abilities evaporate to nothing. I never do math while running, even simple addition and subtraction, because I always get it wrong. So I need to be careful about this high horse. And I also need to point out that this was one of the fastest in our group, a genuine bad-ass compared to my slow, cushy. But still…
“How fast? I need a time. I can’t do percentages.”
I went to get a drink.