When I’m not training, I purely enjoy the runs for what they are – just the simple pleasure of letting the mind wander as I push onward to experience the world around me. “But, you’re going around the same part of the neighborhood all the time… how much experience of the world can you get out of that?!” Okay, I didn’t say it was a Worldly-type of experience, just of “the world” in general, all right?
When you think about it, it’s so simple, yet we subject ourselves to discomfort, exhaustion, and a mental challenge all at once. Hard to describe that as enjoyable, but at the end of it all, one can hardly deny the fulfillment of accomplishment. When I think about that experience, it takes very little motivation to get me out there for the longer runs. Once I get into the run, however, I’m always glad that I did it. During training, it’s different; I know that I have to do it – it’s something that requires discipline because I’m in it for the endurance building – to get my body to the point where I can sustain an ever-increasing amount of mileage. I certainly wish I had more discipline, because my self-motivation talks are not only depressing, but they’re totally lackluster in enthusiasm! So much for the mental challenge…
Anyway, as you can tell, I’m doing my runs as of late for training. No, I’m not in it for the speed (well, not necessarily, but close) – I’m in it for the distance. Endurance running will get me to the distance and I’ve been on the path for a while, I just have some doubts I can actually run 26.2 miles before 2011 is up. The prior week, my long run of 15 miles wasn’t too bad in retrospect. I bonked at the 13 mile mark and my body was stressed for energy (I had forgotten to pack an extra energy gel!). But I completed my trek and I was quickly in the recovery phase. This past week, I worked in two medium-distance runs of 9 miles each. I love those 15K runs – enough to stress your body and mind, but not enough to trample you into a hole! You can’t tell me there isn’t any sense of achievement when completing a 15K, especially for us new folks! I love it!
However, today (Sunday) was a tough day. It was once again my long run day and the goal was 17 miles. I had plenty of water standing by for the route I plotted around my home, and plenty of energy gels to go for three solid hours if need be (you’d better believe there’s a “need” in there!). The weather was chilly in the morning, but for the length of this run, I would be in good temps throughout the morning and so I didn’t need to worry about overheating – wore my sleeveless top and running shorts as usual, so I was comfortable as can be.
The particular route that I plotted included three long loops through the neighborhood, depending on which blocks I skipped or added, the distance could vary between 5.5 and 6.25 miles per loop. I tried my best to slow my pace to +1 minute on the race pace, to which ultimately I was only able to make at +30 seconds. This is really something I need to work at, consistency-wise, and I felt I was expending too much energy by the second loop. Now, these loops, they’re not quite flat. Actually they have some of the most vicious elevation climbs that no USTF official would ever sanction in a race! But it’s a way of effectively including hill training into my run, and finding a route without hills in my neighborhood is next to impossible!
And so, 11.6 miles into my run, I was still feeling strong. My body was feeling the weakness of pushing the distance, but I had no doubt I would have the energy to finish all 17 miles. With my last energy gel consumed, I had plenty of opportunity to make the best of it and I would end the run with my body just about ready to scream for more fuel. By mile 15.75… well, that was it. My right knee started to hurt from soreness – mostly toward the back of the knee, an ever so familiar feeling! The damage was done and I knew it was time to stop running. I walked a short distance and realized that this had the potential to sideline my training. I was a little over mile 16 by now – good thing I was close to home and it was pretty much all downhill from there, geographically speaking. Could I have kept running an easy downhill run to finish 17 miles? Certainly – I had the energy, my mind was set on it, and it was going to be an easy downhill run. My form, however, would have suffered and quite possibly, my injury would have become worse. An otherwise productive run would have turned into a disaster. I learned a simple lesson and it’s something I need to remember; no matter how much we fuel the body to go forward, it’s meaningless unless we gain from the endurance training that allows us to run unencumbered, without injury. I may as well have been trying for 50 miles. In any event, I lacked the physical training characteristic that comes from endurance building.
Time to take a closer look at how realistic my goals are (for the short term)…
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