I'm pretty sure my coach is trying to kill me

I think my coach is trying to kill me, and I told him so.

Usually on Monday nights, I get to training early, and my coach is already there. He usually gets there around 430 and runs for an hour or so. Training begins at 630. I tend to get there around 6. I always have these grandiose ideas that I'll run a little before training begins, and it never happens. Tonight, coach was not running, which is highly unusual. He told me he wasn't feeling well, head ache, sore throat, general malaise. I told him about the migraine I had all day yesterday, and the residual headache I have had all day today was not great, but endurable.

Coach: That's okay, we'll take it easy today.
Me: ::laughing:: Riight. Your idea of taking it easy and my idea are completely different. You'll be all oh, we'll do an easy six mile run tonight and I'm more of a oh hey, there's the bar, let's go get a drink kind of girl.

Take it easy. Pshaw!

Coach doesn't want me to rely so heavily on the timer on my iPod. So, tonight, I put my iPod into the pocket on my fuel belt and trusted my coach. He said I would be surprised at how far I am actually able to run. I was skeptical; the trail has markers every quarter mile. I was certain my brain would know when I hit 1 mile and tell my legs it was time to walk. But, with my coach at my side the entire time; only one other person made it to training tonight, and he was taking it easy -- his easy is my agony -- so coach was with me the entire time. Five minutes into the run, coach told the other guy to walk for five minutes (he's just starting back after 2 weeks nursing an injury) while I kept running. Let me tell you how much I wanted to walk for five minutes! But coach kept me running. It was lightly raining, but the rain provided zero cooling relief; I was sweating like crazy. We reached the one mile mark and turned around (the trail ends at one mile, as the entire trail is only two miles long, and we started at mid-point). Coach kept me running, you know, because he's trying to kill me. According to the markers on the trail, coach let me walk just after 1.5 miles. It was 16 minutes of running.

Coach gave me five glorious minutes of walking. It felt like five seconds. Then, he decided to mix things up... for fun... because he's trying to kill me. We slow jogged for two minutes and then did fifty steps at a much faster pace. Two minutes slow jog, fifty steps fast. Ugh. The man is trying to kill me. After only two reps, I stopped being able to keep jogging, and started walking for two minutes. Coach was disappointed, I could tell, but I was beat.



At the end of the evening, coach told me he is seeing improvement in me. And I am trying to do better. For him. Because he believes in me, even though I don't. He's trying to get my head in shape, because my brain is holding me back. It is. But I guess I'm just not as concerned about that as he is. It's not as important for me to improve my pace as it is to my coach. So, I'll try to do better for him. Even though he's trying to kill me.