WWCBD?

What Would Coach Brad/Bekah Do? This past week, I had to ask myself that very question when I was presented with the opportunity to be pseudo-coach to some of my fellow FASTies.

You see, spring FAST ended last week, and the next season doesn't start until next week... which meant this week was FAST-free. Naturally, several of us were exhibiting symptoms of severe FAST withdrawal: strong urges to run 400m repeats around our office buildings, feelings of despair when faced with the prospect of running alone, nightmarathons, and wearing running shoes everywhere (including to work, to bed, and in the shower). Going through the detox process would have been too difficult, so we opted to feed our addiction by running together on the usual FAST nights.

Since we didn't have any leadership, we felt a bit lost at first. That's when I asked myself WWCBD? And then the answer was clear:

I had to make them suffer.

After an easy 2 miles, I stopped my fellow FASTies and told them it was time to step it up. Our real coaches wouldn't want us to be out here doing easy-breezy stuff on days we would normally be pushing our limits. No sir. We needed to work.

"Here's what we're gonna do," I said. "We're gonna run from here, to the end of this straight section of road, fast. Then we'll rest a minute or two, turn around and come back fast." The straight section of road was about 1/4-mile long. I realized that I was going kind of easy on them, only making them run two 1/4-mile repeats, but I would make up for it later. Heh heh heh...

So, as we were running back to our starting point, I noticed there were a few hills coming up. Ahhh, a perfect opportunity to insert some more suffering. I sprinted up the first hill. My friends followed suit. I didn't even have to tell them to. As Louisa crested the hill, she said to me "Monkey see, monkey do!" Oh, this was much too easy! I did the same thing for the next hill, and they once again followed suit.

Now I understand why our coaches enjoy coaching so much! Having other people do what you tell them is pretty cool. And of course there are the long-term rewards of watching your proteges succeed and prosper. I'm sure my two days of pretending to be coach didn't make any difference in my friends' running performances, but perhaps they at least got a decent workout from it. And, more importantly, of course, they fed their FAST addiction. Because, honestly, those withdrawal symptoms were really getting annoying. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go mow my lawn in the shape of a 400m track so I can do some repeats...