Long Run 3

For my 3rd long run of this season, I had resolved to breach the 15K mark. I was up at 4:30 AM on Sunday and managed to hit the Cubbon Park trails by 5:50 AM. It was still predawn and running in that grey darkness and watch it slowly turn to light has always been an exhilarating feeling for me.

I'd prepared a lemon and salt water mix, gatorade and a snack of peanuts and raisins in anticipation of the 15K effort. I've established a standard loop of about 4.75 K within the park with my car serving as the aid station. I also took along my running sipper this time. My previous 13K effort saw me dehydrated and I need to relearn to drink on the run as well.

It was a pretty slow 15K and I discovered a beautiful trail which I hadn't spotted earlier. The damp grass, crackling of bamboo, rowdy birds and the stillness that comes paradoxically with running through or almost with all that around you brings a very fundamental joy. This feeling of freedom and contentment, where no worries, no deadlines, no constraints and frustrations of our urban existence matters, just simple solitude is really the reason I run.

I felt some pain in my ankle and back around the 12K mark but just shut it out. I also didn't look at my distance meter too much. One of the things which I always suspected but is now reinforced reading Scott Jurek is the apparent connection between the brain and body when it comes to any kind of physical stress. The moment you start to...well ...THINK is when you get into trouble. I've experienced this so many times in races and training runs where you start to think that there's only 1 loop left or start seeking that next Km marker or worse, that it's only "x" K to the finish. Perhaps many runners can do this and are fit and strong enough to power through but I'm not. The moment I start thinking of how much more I have left to run or that my calves are cramping up or there is pain somewhere, it's a recipe for disaster. The trick really is to be completely and totally in the moment and be "outside" yourself in a way, as Scott Jurek says. Right now, it's just putting one foot in front of the next, looking at the scenery, listening to the tunes, focusing on your posture and stride. Not thinking of distance, of the next loop, of the next water break or anything else. I felt the tearing urge to look at my watch around what I knew was the 13K mark and if I had, I would probably have just stopped there: my brain was sending all sorts of signals to my body saying it's OK, 13 K is still good...don't push it, don't get injured etc. I set all that aside and just kept going. Now I need to learn how to calm the brain and mind for much longer periods. Again, to quote Jurek,"Rational assessments too often lead to rational surrenders." 

I completed the 15K at a super slow pace of 8:30 / km at a time of 2:07. Nowhere near the race pace I will need to work up. Again, the enormity of 42 K in 4 months is hitting me hard, given my current physical state. I have to learn that most crucial skill of distance running and indeed life: patience. Patience coupled with hard, hard work. I have 3 more long runs of 15, 16 and 12K lined up (following Hal Higdon's training plan) after which I have my first half marathon long run scheduled for 7th of June. Patience.