Spike up

This was a few weeks ago. I was heading down to Vanny for the Mets meet with a small group of guys in the van. The rest of the team was doing the mile repeats workout at the Wallkill River Rail Trail in New Paltz.

Before I left, I typed up the splits for the workout groups and discussed the specifics of the workout with several team members. One team member, Captain Tommy Lipari, had questions about the intensity and the paces. I told him to keep it steady for most of the workout, but if he (and others) felt good they could empty the tank a bit on the last interval.

“Oh,” he said. “I’m gonna spike up then.”

As usual, I was perplexed by the modern jargon, so I said, “Uh, yeah, sure.” But then I was paranoid and wondered if he was being literal – as in, putting on the racing spikes for the last interval. While I am not averse to this practice on occasion, generally I frown upon it. In Tommy’s case, I definitely frowned upon it given his recent injury history.

But then I realized that “spike up” has both literal and figurative meanings to our guys – and, I suppose, to competitive runners in general.

As you prepare to race, when the time comes to head to the starting line, inevitably you will hear guys say, “OK, time to spike up.” This is literal. Time to get your spikes on and race.

But “spike up” also can refer to the mentality – again, not often espoused by me, but sometimes quite useful – of letting it rip a bit and testing your limits within the parameters of a workout or other challenging run.

On Friday, we will be heading to the track for a challenging and continuous speed workout. It is a workout in which we will be looking to work on that delicate balance of speed and endurance. As in all workouts, the goal is to achieve the stated mission of the workout without totally depleting the athletes. You always want to “leave something in the tank” for upcoming races – especially our championship races.

But, boys being boys, there will be “spike up” talk on Friday. A track workout in cross country is a rare occurrence indeed, and the need for speed is a natural inclination for a competitive athlete. So yes. We will be looking to “spike up” a bit on Friday, if only for a few minutes.

Keep in mind, though, that we will be looking to “spike up” for real and for keeps the following Friday at Vanny.