The send-off.

I have read Daniel's Running Formula. I get track workouts, tempo, cruise intervals, and the stuff that makes you run faster. I didn't do them for my first marathon, and did for my second a few months later, and ran 8 min faster. You run hard, rest, get your breath back, and then do it again. I keep the rest interval shorter than the work interval, if doing 800s, I give myself a 2' rest. Mile repeats get 3' rest. I recover before I work again.

And then there's the pool. Go swim until you think you're going to pass out from lack of air and your arms are going to fall off, then rest 8 or 11 seconds and go again. That is not rest. There is no recovering in 8 seconds. That's a pause just long enough to fill me with dread. To calculate how many more times I have to do it. To wonder if anyone would notice if I ducked in with the old people at water aerobics and waved styrofoam barbells around to Yakkity Yak.