The Value of a Running Buddy

With Running Buddy, Susan

Ah, speed work.  How I love to hate it! Wednesday was my first speed workout of my training program for the Famous Idaho Potato Half Marathon.  Due to the shortened schedule (I didn’t start training early enough in the year!) the first timed runs were miles rather than half miles.  Additionally, I planned to run with a buddy late in the day.  I had plenty of time to talk myself out of the speed work. When we met up for our run, I even said, “It wouldn’t take much to talk me out of doing speed work today.” She countered with, “Oh good, cuz I’ve been dreading it all day!”  We decided to do the warm up mile and then choose whether to do one timed mile, two timed miles as the program designated, or to bag it all together and just make it an easy four mile run.

Running buddies can save us from ourselves. The warm up mile was the key.  By the time we had one mile under our feet, we were excited to stop and stretch prior to running a timed mile. We convinced ourselves that it would be okay to just do one timed run.  Then we would see how we felt about the rest of the workout.  So we did.  The first mile was 22 seconds under the target pace!  We started too fast, had to slow down, and then recovered with a good pace for the second 800 meters.  We were surprised and confused with our success.  We slowed, talked about it, jogged for a half mile, and convinced ourselves to run a second timed mile.  That pace?  Thirty-seven seconds faster than the target!  Even our half mile cool down was done at a pretty good clip.

What did I learn?
A – Friends can help us be our best selves.
B – Misery does love company!
C – Speed work really works!


Running Granny Green encourages women, especially grandmothers, to gain greater fitness by providing tips and inspiration to insure long years of joyful grand-parenting. The cookie recipes are a bonus!

Happy Running!

Carol - aka Running Granny Green

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.