10 and 1-derful

Amy and Tom over at Runner’s Lounge are asking running bloggers to post their words of running wisdom in thirteen words or less. This week, mine would be:

Learn from your mistakes.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t invent that phrase, but I sure lived it this week on my long run. Just to recap: two weeks ago, I ran an agonizing 32K (20 miles). It was the longest distance I’ve ever run in my life and, believe me, I felt every step of it. Especially the million or so steps it took to complete the last 8K, after I bonked with a capital “B”. Funny thing is that for me, it was a pretty fast run overall. My average pace was 6:27 seconds/kilometre.

The problem was that at the end of the run, I felt completely wrung out. I know if I had to run an additional 10.2K (and I understand they’re pretty strict about actually running the distance during the marathon), I would have spent a lot of time walking – and probably weeping and cursing under my breath.

What I learned from that tough run was that running long distances requires an intelligent expenditure of energy. That means going as fast as you possibly can without going too fast. For each person, that’s a different amount fast. For me, it’s definitely a little slower than a 6:27 pace. So last Sunday, I swallowed my pride and aimed for a 6:30 pace, taking the Running Room prescribed 1-minute walk breaks after every 10 minutes of running. I ended up running with a guy I’d never met before, an experienced marathoner who was making an effort to run conservatively because he was coming off an injury. More pride-swallowing: my comfortable-but-challenging pace was his recovery run.

And it was humbling. The runners that I’d been in spitting distance of in past weeks (if, in my exhaustion, I was actually able to produce saliva) were way out of site. But I was a good girl. I ran more or less the same pace at the beginning of the 29K run as I did at the end. I hydrated like crazy on every walk break (hydrating is runner-talk for drinking water). I made a conscious effort to keep just a little energy in reserve. And I felt great. Like I could run 13 extra kilometres if I needed to.

Not only that, but I felt better post-run. No gastro-intestinal upsets (I think the extra water helped) or seizing up of muscles. I was sore but whole – and a whole lot wiser.

Comments

[Donna]

I guess it's an important to learn---run your own pace. It's so hard not to compare ourselves to others. (We are women after all!)

I have the utmost admiration for you running these long distances. After seeing how I felt after 13.1, I'm not sure I can imagine doing the distances you are doing.

I'm intrigued by the Running Room concept of walking one minute.

Oh, have you tried Accelerade? It's really not that bad (fruit punch flavor) and promises to increase endurance and speed recovery. My friend swears it makes a difference.

[Kelly]

Congratulations!! I know you'll be able to do it. This is very exciting, the tension is building... You could start charging for this at this point, you know.

[Nitmos]

Wow, taper here you come! Almost there, almost there...