This was the warm-up before the track warm-up, and I found myself next to some of the faster women in the club. It was a nice place to be. Then I realized that while they were idling along, this was, in fact, my speed work. We hadn’t even gotten to the track, and I was panting.

On the way, one of the women shared the news that she was expecting and was about halfway into her pregnancy. There she was, running for two, and she wasn’t even breathing hard.   

The real warm-up began once we got to the track. It was a lesson in relativity for me, with their “relatively slow” being way too fast for this girl. It’s not that I don’t have speed. I do. It’s called “on.” My other speed is “off.” 

That’s when I decided to devise my own approach. While everyone else was cooking along at some percentage of race pace, I was the turtle, poking around the edges of the track.  

I settled into a pace comfortable enough that I could easily chit-chat whenever someone joined me for a lap. I even incorporated a little Power Yoga thinking into my workout, doing a mental check-up on my body to find any places of tightness or strain so I could work them loose.  

Then, as the rest of the pack did their 400-meter sprints with 200-meter recovery legs, I ran remedial track. I surged a bit, I hung back, I ran backward to stretch my hamstrings. Basically, I looked clueless, but that’s never stopped me before. 

Unlike these former high-school athletes, I have no coaches inside my head shouting drills, or form or cadence. I don’t run to music, so there are no driving beats or rhyming lyrics in my brain. Obviously, I don’t follow directions well, or I would have been running a structured workout. 

I just did my style of speed work: on and off. And on again, if I felt like it. 

It’s not like I ever expect to be fast enough to win a race. To do that, I’d at least have to enter one, and I have way too many race T-shirts in my drawers from volunteering to want another one.  

My goal with speed work is to be able to pick up the pace every now and then when the mood strikes me. It would be nice to keep up with the better runners, if only to hear different stories and view life from the fast lane. 

As it is, I’m happy to be out there putting in miles. Several times a week. Every week. For life. At any speed. I consider running the physical version of “an apple a day,” trying to ward off all doctors and physical therapists as long as possible.  

The motto of my running club is “Run for fun and fitness,” and that’s what I’m doing. Although every once in a while, I’d like to see if I can do it at a slightly faster clip. 

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To join the Delaware County Road Runners Club for speed (or non-speed) work, visit www.DelcoRRC.org.