When I Grow Up I Want To Be…A Stealth Ninja
Running with Speedy Paul is an education. I say ‘running with’ and what I actually mean is running with him on the warm up and cool down – ‘cos when the fun starts Paul flies and I’m still very much earth-bound: The clue’s in the name, you see…
Anyway, in an attempt to keep the elastic from snapping completely we’ve learned to use handicapping – he gives me a start – and even if we hardly see each other during an interval set we both stay a little more honest knowing that there’s someone else sharing the same stretch of road at some ungodly hour of the morning.
Paul’s real value is that he shuts me up.
You see, Paul doesn’t run like a normal earth-bound soul – he glides. It’s beautiful thing to behold and he hardly makes a sound. Now I’m a significantly quieter running bloke than I was just because I’ve learned the link between noise and mechanical efficiency and I’ve made the adjustments. But running next to Paul forces me to tune in and match his stealth mode ‘cos anything else? Well, it’d just be rude, right? It’s a wonderful exercise in mirroring and modelling and for a short while at least I get to experience some of what it must be like to be Speedy Stealth Paul.
Passing through the countryside with hardly a sound and a conscious effort? Heck, what’s not to like!
