Remembering How to Run

Yesterday was the last day of my second week of running 8 miles a day for seven days.  The week had been up and down, but I wanted to finish the second week the same way I'd finished the first, by running hard.  At the end of my first week, I'd done a progression run, starting relatively easy and gradually increasing my effort until my final two miles were run hard.  I ran the eight miles a week ago in just under 86 minutes.  Yesterday, I decided to start the run solidly, and maintain the effort the whole way.  It's a little bit of a tricky concept, because it really doesn't entail a regular warm up.  On the other hand, it wasn't like I was running all out the whole time.  That's what I realized.  Yesterday, I think that I remembered how to run.

Running hard isn't the same as running all out.  In fact, it's really a nuanced concept, for me at least.  I'm sure it's not that nuanced for real runners.  Last week, I finished up my run at a Zone 3 effort.  That's an effort that I once used to be able to hold for a half marathon.  These days, doing 3-4 miles at Zone 3 effort would be very hard for me. In fact, that's kind of the idea.  A 5K is done at a harder effort than Zone 3, and I had struggled with that during my attempts to work on my 5K time.

Normally, when I go out for a run these days, I think about all sorts of things.  I think about life and work.  I also think about running, but my mind wanders.  During yesterday's run, I only thought about running.  That's because I was remembering how to run.

Meditation is about the breath, so is running.  I gauge my running effort by my breathing.  For me, Zone 2 running is about breathing every 4th step.  There is a nuance to this approach, and that is the effort of the breath.  Yesterday, I remembered that how I breath is part of how I run.  I began my run breathing every 4th step, but focused on my running form.  I wasn't going to run easy, I was going to run purposefully.  That meant that I was running faster than I might normally run while breathing every 4th step.  In fact, in yesterday's blog, I'd already laid out some basic time goals.  When I got to the end of my first mile, it was 9:10, not as fast if I went all out, but very solid, the fastest I've run this mile since my latest journey began.  The next mile was about maintaining the effort that I'd started, that I needed to continue to run up the hill, and then run downhill, so that when I finished my second mile, 9:11, also faster than I've been running it, especially because I'm not usually focused on the effort during this mile.  The third and fourth miles were key.  I needed to continue to run hard, but not increase my breathing rate into Zone 3.  I focused on my form, and on my effort, continuing to breath every 4th step in a hard Zone 2 effort.  Miles 3, 4 and 5 were done in 8:38, 8:49, and 8:54, meaning that my average pace had dipped down below 9 minutes.  I now had a goal.  That goal was to complete today's run in under 82 minutes, to average less than 9 minute per mile pace.  Mile 6 is usually my slowest mile, while not the steepest, it turns out to have more undulation, and I may tend to lose my focus during it (this mile has 120 feet of climbing and 70 feet of descending).  This may be something to work on in the future, but yesterday I kept my focus and ran Mile 6 in 9:24.  This meant that I had to pick it up a notch to get back below 9 minute pace.  I was ready to run the last two miles at Tempo effort, or Zone 3 effort, but in the end, just refocused my efforts on running hard and remembering how to run.  Mile 7 while is 3/4 uphill, and 1/4 steep downhill found me dipping into Zone 3, but finding that I could still put out a very solid effort while breathing every 4th step, and during the downhill realized that I didn't need to run with a Zone 3 effort if I just ran the downhill fast, ending up Mile 7 in 8:42.  The last mile is always fun, insofar as its downhill for 3/4 of the way and finishes with a short steep climb that I'm now running very hard every day.  Theoretically, the long downhill opens up the possibility of a pretty fast mile, but I continued with my solid effort and did the final mile in 8:24.  I ran the 8 miles in just under 82 minutes, averaging 8:54 pace.  Considering that my eight mile run includes nearly 600 feet of climbing (and descending), and that I ran this at a hard Zone 2 effort, I was beyond pleased.

I also realized during my run that I only thought about running.  I was in the running moment, and I remembered how to run.