The most difficult thing about a truly long distance is gaining enough foresight to select an appropriate pace. This is what makes marathon running so different from a 5K or a sprint race. It is different from an obstacle course or a game of football. Marathon running has less to do with pure power, talent, or physical perfection, and so much more to do with control, focus, and wisdom. The latter of the three can only be improved with each race and injury. That is why ever year I realize that I have become a completely different runner than the year before.
So how do you select a pace? How do you follow it? It seems like a simple task at first, but it has proven to be my most difficult athletic challenge. My whole life has been about diving head first into challenges. Sprinting at the sound of a start gun, and crashing into a pile of injuries and defeat within the first lap when I realize I just can't keep going that fast. The first time I ran a mini marathon, I was running 6-7 mile workouts at 7:30 pace on a regular basis. Just a few months later my knee gave out and I was confined to the couch for three weeks.
I ran a one mile time trial last week at the seemingly painful pace of 7:19. A year ago I probably would have kicked myself for this, maybe shed a few tears, punished myself with some extra speed work on my run the next day. Instead, I rewarded myself. I wrote the time on my training board and told myself that slow is exactly where I should be at the end of the first month of training. I have three more months of training, three more months of escalating workouts, pounding on my knees, early mornings, and pure endurance. The first month is about preparing your body for that. It is about building strength and stability, feeling out this year's strength's and weaknesses in your body, and proceeding with caution. For the first time ever, I seem to have mastered that.
So what is the next month about? The next month is about applying this idea to my workouts. My goal is to master controlled pace on each long run. By the time that March 1st rolls around, I want to be able to clock perfect splits on a 15 mile run. That means start slow, and get progressively faster with each mile. Splitting a run like this is incredibly challenging, and I've always been terrible at it. You can never be a successful runner if you can't control your speed though. You have to evaluate your energy and strength and distribute it evenly and perfectly over 26.2 miles.
Like most principles of running, pace is one that is easy to apply to anyone's life. I'm sure I'm not the only person that can think of moments in my life where things could have gone so differently if I'd paused at the beginning of a goal or task to think about a schedule and pace that I could actually maintain to the finish. How often do we waste our successes or days glancing at the person next to us, wondering why they seem to be moving so much faster and stronger? We forget about focusing on the here and the now, enjoying the place we are at and the progress that we have made. In the end, refusing to focus on our own perfect pace only leads to failure, injury, and discontent.
So this Saturday, I will set out with a slower pace. I will enjoy the slow, comfortable rhythm of each breath as my strike the ground comfortably and slowly. I will look around at my surroundings, feel the change in my muscle tone, and enjoy the pace that suits me right now.
So how do you select a pace? How do you follow it? It seems like a simple task at first, but it has proven to be my most difficult athletic challenge. My whole life has been about diving head first into challenges. Sprinting at the sound of a start gun, and crashing into a pile of injuries and defeat within the first lap when I realize I just can't keep going that fast. The first time I ran a mini marathon, I was running 6-7 mile workouts at 7:30 pace on a regular basis. Just a few months later my knee gave out and I was confined to the couch for three weeks.
I ran a one mile time trial last week at the seemingly painful pace of 7:19. A year ago I probably would have kicked myself for this, maybe shed a few tears, punished myself with some extra speed work on my run the next day. Instead, I rewarded myself. I wrote the time on my training board and told myself that slow is exactly where I should be at the end of the first month of training. I have three more months of training, three more months of escalating workouts, pounding on my knees, early mornings, and pure endurance. The first month is about preparing your body for that. It is about building strength and stability, feeling out this year's strength's and weaknesses in your body, and proceeding with caution. For the first time ever, I seem to have mastered that.
So what is the next month about? The next month is about applying this idea to my workouts. My goal is to master controlled pace on each long run. By the time that March 1st rolls around, I want to be able to clock perfect splits on a 15 mile run. That means start slow, and get progressively faster with each mile. Splitting a run like this is incredibly challenging, and I've always been terrible at it. You can never be a successful runner if you can't control your speed though. You have to evaluate your energy and strength and distribute it evenly and perfectly over 26.2 miles.
Like most principles of running, pace is one that is easy to apply to anyone's life. I'm sure I'm not the only person that can think of moments in my life where things could have gone so differently if I'd paused at the beginning of a goal or task to think about a schedule and pace that I could actually maintain to the finish. How often do we waste our successes or days glancing at the person next to us, wondering why they seem to be moving so much faster and stronger? We forget about focusing on the here and the now, enjoying the place we are at and the progress that we have made. In the end, refusing to focus on our own perfect pace only leads to failure, injury, and discontent.
So this Saturday, I will set out with a slower pace. I will enjoy the slow, comfortable rhythm of each breath as my strike the ground comfortably and slowly. I will look around at my surroundings, feel the change in my muscle tone, and enjoy the pace that suits me right now.
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