For some reason I've been thinking a lot lately about the only college summer I spent at home. I had a job at a home-town law firm to which I had to wear shirts with collars and pants or a skirt. I think dots were in that summer (this was 16 years ago, mind you). I also had a physical training regimen motivated not by some personal virtue but by my athletic scholarship and--truth be told--fear of my coach.
Mornings I would wake up at 4:30, drive 20 minutes to the Y, run 7 x 400 on the mulchy outdoor track (with timed rest that decreased each week), drive home and shower and sleep for two more hours before getting up to put on my dotted collared shirt and pants or skirt. I've been eyeing the track over at Urbana High and for some reason thinking about trying to run some 400s. In fact, maybe I'll head over here between thunderstorms to see what kind of time I can make and if it's even possible to do seven. I'll post an update soon, but if you think I'm posting my times, you can think again my friends.
UPDATE: Woo, that was hard. John, who has never run on a track (!), came along and smoked me but as usual was sweet about it. We made it through six of them, and let's just say that if I would have posted these times in college, my teammates and I would still be running the punishment laps. I'm going to try to shave 10-15 seconds off each one by summer's end: totally doable.