Run, run, run, run, run

I ran an 18 miler on Sunday. I was anticipating that it would be a disaster since I've had a couple of problems of running out of energy on shorter long runs lately, including a horrid bonking at 12 1/2 miles on one run and barely squeaking out 14 on another. That's really just prep on my part...the previous days run was too hard for me at this point and just not enough fuel reserves. This time around I took it easy the day before (5 miles only) and deliberatly kept the pace down on the 18 (about 8:40/mile). I got back home after 17 miles and still had reserves left so I did an extra mile in the park...no problems.

I don't stop during my runs. Sometimes in the summer on very long runs the heat can get to me and I've got to stop and catch some breeze to cool off. Or a shoelace gets untied, or I've got to take a nature break. The running world can be viewed in two segments...those who take walk breaks...and those who don't. I'm in the latter category. I see walking during runs as removing some of the satisfaction and it's detrimental to training. I know the proponents and what they say "it prevents injury, it let's you go further than you otherwise would, it prevents bonking" yada yada. None of it is particularly true, all can be managed by pure running and training. Walk breaks introduce a bad habit, and one that can be very difficult to get out of. Beginners should do it because it helps get their bodies accustomed to running and getting the distances in they need to promote early development. If they ran only as far as they could they wouldn't get very far and wouldn't get out very often. Other than that, don't bother.

Once you get used to running without stopping, it's like everything else, you adapt to it, your body adapts to it, it becomes natural and normal. You'll be able to hold a pace for the duration instead of only 8-10 minutes at a time. Recovery will come around, the thought that it 'promotes recovery' is bogus. It only 'promotes recovery' because it 'reduces training', so there's less training to recover from. If someone did that 18 miler I did taking a break every 10 minutes, or even longer when it comes time to take a gu or fiddle with the fuel belt for a while, they're not getting out of it what I did. I did that run because I can, anything else just wouldn't measure up.

Just to let you know

I really have nothing to say lately.

I think I'm somewhere around.....here

I always have trouble figuring out where I reside in terms of being a runner. A sort of running identity crisis. I'm new to the game and never did this to any level before. I think the closest I got was running one lap around a cinder track in the 70's in Junior High health class as part of the 'participaction' awards tests...I recall it nearly killed me. So I have no background other than what I've accumulated over the past 5 years.

I've seen a lot of people who were quite involved in their high school years or in college, etc. or just people who have been at it for decades on end. I don't consider myself as any part of a 'boom', it's just something I'd always wanted to do and one morning headed out the door and started. I'm not in it for any trendiness it might carry.

I don't think of myself as slow, but I certainly don't consider myself as being anyways fast either. A couple of years ago after completing a pretty competitive level 5k one spring morning, one of the local fast guys (part of a very small but talented running club) who has seen me in the park came up and introduced himself, saying "I see you in the park a lot...so how'd you do today?". When I told him my time of 20:05, he just kinda nodded and walked away. Elite snobery? Sure was (methinks he thought maybe I would fit into their group and were approaching for recruitment, but my recreational numbers didn't quite jive with the 'requirements' I guess). But it certainly shows that I'm really not at any level that would make anyone with talent say "hey...that's pretty good!".

If I were midpack, I'd probably be pretty comfortable running with the masses and finishing in the thick of the mob as they squeeze their way over the finishing mats. If I were at the back, I could probably let loose and have fun and really not pay much attention to time, instead just enjoy the surroundings. If I were at the front I'd be fierce and competitive and work strategies throughout the race working to snag those all-important awards positions that everyone else considers waaaay out of scope.

Instead, I'm somewhere between the top and the mid. I'm not going to win many awards (I occasionally snag an a/g placement) and certainly no prize money or trophies to sit on a mantle. I'm not slow enough to just slog through it so I end up having to push to make sure I'm not passed near the end. My rewards usually come with seeing the mass of people yet to finish, finding my way to the food tables without lineups, maybe spotting some faces that are in my league and they'll be my adversaries for the day. It's finishing in that top 15% or so, knowing that I've held my ground and I'm not retrograding into 'jogger' territory.

I'm not anything to brag about. People do far better doing far less work than I do. It's a lot of effort for little or no tangible return, and it can be expensive to boot.

Can't quit now though.