3 Kinds of Runs

After the past three years of training for one long distance race after another, I've pinpointed three distinct types of long runs.

1. The GREAT runs. These are the runs where you feel good the entire time, physically and mentally. It's the run where the endorphins are rushing like crazy. Often you may end up pushing your speed because you feel so good you want to run faster--and CAN. These aren't necessarily always the PR's, but often your finish times are a pleasant surprise. You notice the colors of the leaves and nature around you or how much you love the song that's on your iPod. To sum it up, you're invincible.

2. The good, mediocre or otherwise non-eventful runs. These are the runs that you don't have much to say about--not that they were bad; they just weren't great. There may have been slight muscle cramps, joint issues, side-stitches, etc. Or you may have felt fine physically, but didn't enjoy the run and you treated it like another chore on your to-do list. Sometimes you may have to slow down a notch. If you are looking for a time goal, chances are you'll still be able to push the speed on these runs, but it will require more effort and it will feel hard.

3. The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad runs. There could be many reasons a run could fall into this category: dehydration, hitting a wall, muscle/joint complications, weather elements--anything that forces you to slow down drastically and quesion whether or not you can even finish. You are tempted to turn around and go home early, or call for a ride, or lie down on the road in the fetal position. You start making deals with yourself...one more mile and I'll stop and catch my breath, stretch out my hamstring, etc. More often than not, us runners will keep going and finish out the mileage, rough as it is, but we'll have to accept the cold hard truth that we won't be able to keep up our intended pace. Once we get past the disappointment of not hitting a time goal, it becomes sheer survival. You get slower as you go, and the look on your face says it all. After these runs, you don't feel high on life, but rather sick or in pain. You question why you do this to yourself. Why you paid for that race you're training for.

The reason I was able to so vividly desribe Run #3 is because that's exactly what my 11-mile run this past Sunday was. The worst run I can remember in ages. I knew about 3 miles in, it wasn't going to be fun. I tried bargaining with myself: my turn-around point at 5.5 miles was becoming 5 miles, or 4.5 miles in my head. I reasoned that 10 miles instead of 11 is hardly a difference...but once you're at 5 miles, what's another 1/2 mile before you turn around? I ended up doing the full distance, but slowwwwwly. I was running around my FULL marathon pace and stopping every mile for breathers. At many times I thought about Marshall Ulrich and how all he did was put one foot in front of the other to run across America. If he could do that, I could finish this. So I did. And then I was dizzy and nauseous for the rest of the evening.

It was my own fault for thinking that I could run on a Sunday evening after a whole weekend of bad food. Half the food I ate the Saturday before was pure junk: cookies, ice cream and the beer that goes along with March Madness. The other half of what I ate wasn't necessarily unhealthy, but not what you want to be eating prior to a long run: grilled steak, a huge strawberry spinach salad, grilled asparagus and red onions. The morning before the run, I had buckwheat banana walnut pancakes (Monon Food Company--yumm!) thinking that would be good fuel for the upcoming run. It was, but the 4 cups of coffee I had with it depleted all water from my body. I was sweating out pure salt during my run despite the Gatorade I had with me.

It was a good lesson that no matter how many longs runs I've done, I can't expect good results after a weekend like that. You can't always prepare for runs, and in fact, some of my best ones were when I wasn't feeling up to the task and had no expectations. This weekend though, you better believe I'm going to make every effort to run first thing on Saturday morning before the damage is done! (Or hopefully not done at all!)