Extreme Makeover: FAST Edition

Do you remember when I was telling you all about that workout that Coach Brad dubbed "The FAST"? Remember how I predicted that it would become a signature workout for us, because why else would he give it a name like that?

Well, my prediction became reality last night.

Told you so. *sticks tongue out*

There was a difference, though. You see, "The FAST" has gotten a bit of a makeover. Particularly in the area of length. Meaning: it got longer. A lot longer.

Let's review "The FAST", shall we? In its original incarnation, it consisted of about a 1 mile warmup, a 2 mile interval on the track (8 laps), one Hill of Death, and another 2 mile interval on the track (another 8 laps). Altogether, it was about 6 miles of "fun". Personally, I think that's plenty long. But our coaches disagreed.

Indeed, they took "The FAST" to a whole new level of "fun". And by "fun", of course I mean "torture". The warmup was lengthened, and the coup de grâce (if you can call it that, because there was no mercy in this workout) was the addition of a second Hill of Death. Yep, that pretty much ensured a hasty demise for us all. It ended up being over 7 miles - easily our longest FAST workout ever.


Coach Brad instructed us marathoners to run our 2-mile track repeats at marathon pace or slightly faster. I opted for slightly faster, since my marathon pace is... well... slow. My first two miles were about a 10:30 pace, which is 30 seconds faster than my goal marathon pace. It felt pretty easy, actually. *shhhhh don't tell my coaches I said that!* When I returned to the track after my first Hill of Death (huffing and puffing and generally dying), Coach Brad advised me to pick up the pace for the last 2 miles and run about a 10:00 - 10:15 pace. Okay, I think I can do that. Then he challenged me to catch up to and pass several other FASTies who were on the track.

A challenge, eh? I can't pass up a good challenge!

I passed the first two people in the first lap. No problem. I passed the second two people in the next lap. And I passed the last person about 4 laps in. I ended up running my second 2 miles at about a 9:30 pace, a wee bit faster than the 10:00-10:15 pace Coach Brad told me to shoot for.

How's that, Coach Brad?

He told me I was an animal. I asked him "Which animal?" Because it makes a difference, you know. It's one thing to be a cheetah or a gazelle. It's another thing entirely to be a walrus or a buffalo or a chicken.

He never did specify which animal... *looks worried*

And as if that over-7-mile workout wasn't enough "fun" (torture) for one night, we then had to endure Coach Maggie's core workout, which was focused entirely on the posterior chain (back, glutes, hamstrings). She had us rolling around on the ground like flipped-over beetles trying to right themselves, and bending our legs back over our heads in pretzel-like fashion. At one point, fellow FASTie Sue asked if it was possible to earn the Puke Crown from the core workout.

Oh yeah. It's possible.

Nobody puked though. *hears collective sigh of disappointment from readers*

So what will the next episode of "The FAST" have in store for us? Will it get another makeover? Will we run even farther? How soon will it be? Only time will tell. In the mean time, I need to figure out what kind of animal I am. Does anyone know how fast chickens can run?

*wanders off aimlessly, clucking and flapping arms*

Peace. Love. Train.