On the road again, part II

I really did get on the road again Saturday. I ran two miles, out in the cold, right before taking my wife across town for her four-mile race. She was hoping to finish within an hour and actually finished in just under 45 minutes. I was very proud of her.

Today I ran 2.65 miles on the treadmill, at a 4.5-4.6 mph pace. My longest run so far. Ever.

I also learned another valuable lesson about how much of a role mental fortitude plays in running. I have written previously about how I always seem to run out of steam right at the end of my scheduled time for running. When I first started, and was only running in bursts of 60 seconds, 90 seconds, etc., I marveled at how each interval seemed to be exactly right. Like I couldn't have gone any longer. Then one day I decided to shoot for 20 minutes and, much to my surprise, I did the whole 20.

It has been the same this past week or so. I have been running for 30 minutes each time, slightly increasing my pace with each workout. I have noticed that I get really fatigued and start breathing harder in the last five minutes. By the end of the thirty, I feel like I could not have gone another second.

Today started out the same. When I approached the 25 minute mark, I began to breathe harder and really started to feel fatigued. I felt physically exhausted. A little voice in my head said, "you can't make it to thirty today. You should just stop at 25 and try again on Thursday." Instead, I got tough with myself and said, "not only do I refuse to stop at 25, I am going to add an extra five minutes. I'm not stopping until I reach 35 minutes!"

Once I made the decision to add five minutes, something interesting happened. My breathing returned to normal, the feeling of exhaustion disappeared, and the segment of my run between the 25 minute mark and the 30 minute mark felt the same as the segment from 15 to 20. Of course, when I looked down at 32 minutes and realized I only had three minutes to go, the fatigue and heavy breathing returned and my body started trying to tell me it couldn't do it. I did do it, but it felt like I couldn't have gone a second longer than 35 minutes.

So again I learned that when I set out to run for a specific amount of time, my body inevitably acts as though that amount of time is the most I could possibly do. If I decided to only do 20 minutes on my next run, without increasing my pace, I would probably feel wasted at the 16-minute mark and barely make it to twenty. On the other hand, if I decide to do forty minutes, I probably won't even start to feel tired until the 35 minute mark.

I guess the lesson here is that I have to constantly push myself to perform at a higher level than I think I can, even though my body will try to convince me that it cannot do any more. Of course I have to use common sense and continue making moderate increases. I don't think jumping from 35 minutes straight to an hour would be a great idea. But I do need to work up to an occasional 60-90 minute run so I can be well-prepared for the July 4 race, which is 7.6 miles.