Co-Worker Challenged Me to a 400

What is his ethnicity?

I would show up tell you guys how childish you are and that if either of you loses to me they lose their job. I would then beat you both.

cvillefreak wrote:

What is his ethnicity?

White as they get

your boss wrote:

I would show up tell you guys how childish you are and that if either of you loses to me they lose their job. I would then beat you both.

Sounds hypocritical to call the race childish and then compete in it. But my boss definitely could not beat me, so I am safe from this scenario in any case.

Since you have never raced something this fast before you should at a minimum run some quick strides (50+ meters of fast running) after some of your regular runs.

While doing these concentrate on having good running form.

At a minimum i would reccomend this,if you have more time until the race you could possibly look to doing some type of workout.

'Run hard turn left'

unless of course your in Brussels at 7;15pm this Friday and the guy your running against is the third Borlee brother. Then the mantra is 'run fast turn right'

I feel like everybody is ignoring the most interesting part about this... How did this challenge come about? What prompted it, and how did he approach you?

Wise Guy wrote:

I feel like everybody is ignoring the most interesting part about this... How did this challenge come about? What prompted it, and how did he approach you?

I told him that I was going to try adding weekly track workouts to my training this fall (I tried a couple and it didn't really stick). He expressed some interest in joining me for them, but wanted to test himself out first to see if he would be a complete embarrassment or not. Somehow his interest in joining me for the workouts transformed to wanting to race. It is not clear to me how this happened.

Apparently last weekend he went to the gym, cranked the treadmill speed way up, and managed not to fall off for more than a few seconds. He then started pushing the idea a little harder, so we set a firm date. I didn't really want to do the race - it's kind of lose-lose for me since he is out of shape (look stupid if I lose, don't look that great if I win) - but he seems to really want to do it, and seems to believe his odds of beating me are high.

Is it possible that he's secretly been training for a few months now and wants this to be a coming out party of sorts? What else do you know about this guy?

Oh, it'll be a coming out party alright!

Wise Guy wrote:

Is it possible that he's secretly been training for a few months now and wants this to be a coming out party of sorts? What else do you know about this guy?

Secret training cannot be ruled out, but "months" is highly unlikely.

greatescapes wrote:

Since you have never raced something this fast before you should at a minimum run some quick strides (50+ meters of fast running) after some of your regular runs.

While doing these concentrate on having good running form.

At a minimum i would reccomend this,if you have more time until the race you could possibly look to doing some type of workout.

I would recommend more than this - i.e. two or three VERY hard 150's at least twice before race day (we're talking next week's Friday, right (i.e. 9.23)? Do these in your racing shoes. At the very least this will keep you from being hobbled for days afterward with calf soreness.

Hmmmm.....he's run in the 16s for 5k and you can't break 18. IF he's been training just a little, I think I will put my money on co-worker....but am rooting for you.

A one on one grudge match with your boss sounds like the best way to score that sweet promotion.

latently homosexual teenager wrote:

Hmmmm.....he's run in the 16s for 5k and you can't break 18. IF he's been training just a little, I think I will put my money on co-worker....but am rooting for you.

Similar thought to this, although I bet you could break 18. But your half time is better than your 3.5, and your marathon is probably better still. This doesn't suggest that you're super speedy. There's a good chance that your friend will go out too hard and tie up badly, especially if he hasn't been running, but I think there's also a good chance he'll beat you otherwise.

Since I assume you would really like to win, I would do your best to prepare! Hard 150s sounds good. And it would probably be worth taking a couple easy days before.

not a sprinter wrote:

Sounds hypocritical to call the race childish and then compete in it.

Ah now you understand the concept of "middle management"

Will this be run in lanes?

Wait, why is it lose-lose for you? He is the one that ran in college. You obviously did not with those times - no offense - so I would think that he is the "more serious" runner in the eyes of other co-workers, right?

I am not being an ass, I am just saying...

Also, how old are you guys?

400 speed has a lot to do with genetics, too. Even though he is not a 400 guy, he may have been middle distance in HS and still hold that close.

I was d1 and ran sub 30 in the 10k. There is a guy on my street who can beat me in the 400 and he is what you might call "husky." Odds are that your co-worker wins, so be gracious upfront.

Does 5K time really have that much to do with 400m speed?

The again if all we have to go off is 2 5K times....