Steel has posted some really cool "Train like an Athlete" type programs over the years that they use at UPenn and suggested that I could combine those templates with some of Tracy's programming ideas, which I hadn't know about before. (I always figured she was just his freaky strong assistant.) I ended up putting together a 3-days-a-week interval program. The first day is sprints across a variety of distances (10yds, 25, 50, etc), starting with 5 reps at each length and building up to 10. The second day is the more traditional interval day where I can either do 100m sprints or 40yd hills or Prowler runs), again adding reps every week, and the third day is the "fun" day where I should just get outside and run a mile or two, changing speeds or running styles (adding skips, hops, backpedals, etc.) every 100 steps or so. It's pretty straightforward, but definitely looks like a miserable 9 weeks. Guess I'll get super sexified at the end. Well either that or super dead. We'll see.
Thanks for your concern, btw. I'll let her know that somewhere in North Carolina, that big teddy bear with the beard and black baseball cap just PR'ed his 2RM squat and that barbells helped get him back on his feet after his own chemo. Physically she's durable but she has days where she's too upset about this happening to her to get anything done, so I figured I'd run into fewer emotional speedbumps/landmines if we just did stuff she had done before and progressed slowly from there. Thanks for the tips; you'll be the first to know if I get her under a bar.