Earlier this year, I moved to a city about 35 miles away from my old home. Soon after moving, I found a good track to run my intervals on.
Since that time, I began noticing a man in his early 20s doing phenomenal workouts. On different days, I saw him running about 40 400 meter repeats at a pretty good pace, doing a 4:08 solo mile time trial, running a 2:36 1000 (with the last 200 done in ~25 seconds), and doing several 100 meter strides in the mid 11's. Almost everyone, from little kids to 60 year old hobby joggers, stared at him in awe as he circled the track. Heck, I even paused my workout to time him.
He's about the same age as me, but I have never seen him compete in any track meet or road race in the area. Locals say he prefers to be left alone - he only gives short responses to questions and doesn't elaborate further. Not to be deterred, I approached him with questions about his background and training after he finished his workout. He said, "Well, I graduated high school in...(sighs). You know, I don't want to think of the past. Right now, I'm a college student majoring in civil engineering. I'm not on the team and I don't have a coach. I just run to stay in shape, have fun, and hopefully get some sense of direction in my life." That happened two weeks ago, and I haven't seen him since.
Thoughts? Any theories behind this? Anyone else heard of or experienced a similar situation?