You've got me begging you for mercy

You've got me begging you for mercy
Why won't you release me?
I said release me.

I don't know what it is, but I have a small knack for motivating people to workout. At the very least, I have a few friends who don't want to disappoint me, so they show up to workout with me. One friend from school told me she would buy me breakfast if she was late to meet me to workout. After two breakfasts on her, it seemed to do the trick.
My friend Mark (the Ironman) asked me to "whoop his butt" this morning with a speed workout. Okay, I can do that. Thanks to all of my training, I have a variety of speed workouts that can whoop butt in many ways.
The heat is here in Rochester (it is in the low 80s), and while I know it is so much hotter in the southern parts of the country, it is still hot. We did a 2.5 mile warm up and I was already sweating by that point. Time for mile repeats! My plan was to start at 7:10 and knock off 5 seconds per repeat (and do at least 3). I told Mark to start at 8:00 and then would knock off 5-7 seconds per mile. My first mile - 7:08. Mark's 7:36. Too fast. I told Mark he needed to at least match that first mile for the second repeat. He did, and I ran 7:01. Unfortunately, the heat got the best of him and that was it for him. Definitely begging for mercy. I did one more at 6:53. We then ran home, and I gave some advice on speedwork. I know he is going to rock the next session. That's the thing - it is all a learning process. Even if you don't get it right at first, you'll take that experience and learn from it.
I need to work on my abs. I've started doing knee raises on this machine:
If only he was training me!
But seriously, strong abs means a better marathoner, so sign me up. My brother just got The Bender Ball and it comes with a few DVDs. I did the first one today - the core one. Aah! It was 18 minutes, and I yelped a few times at the end. My abs were definitely begging for mercy. I will definitely keep doing that a few times a week. Hopefully it makes a difference!

I don't know what this is
but you got me good
just like you knew you would

I don't know what you do
but you do it well
I'm under your spell.

You got me begging for mercy.