So I started out slow, planning on running 2 kilometers and walking just long enough to blow my nose and have a drink which runs at around a minute to a minute and a half I guess. It’s the first time this season that I am incorporating walk breaks on my long runs (thanks Jen). I don’t think this was a fair test though. Yesterday’s karate class was a real leg workout and I was very “lactic acid” sore I could hardly hobble around. I knew it would be better after a warm up and I was doing pretty good up until kilometer 11 when I began to really feel that it just wasn’t working out. I was averaging about 7:25 per km at the 11 kilometer half way point of my training run. Around kilometer 16 I really began to suffer and I was really struggling to maintain that average pace. My pace slipped a little and I finished with an average pace of 7:35 per kilometer.
I gave up the walk run thing after kilometer 18 because it just wasn’t helping. I had to keep running or else I would stop and seize up. I really did not want to walk the rest of the way and end up with a 10 minute or more pace per kilometer so I had to use strong kime, or focus.
I sort of fell into a trance and I had to grit my teeth and run through the pain. I used every psychological trick in the book. After kilometer 18 I said to myself, it’s just 4 more kilometers, don’t stop. Ever. Just run another kilometer and it will be only 3 more teensy weensy kilometers!
The pain is just because my body was already saturated with lactic acid (I assume) and I had extreme muscle burn before I started the run. Although I have never run an ultra marathon, I knew from reading about them that one way to train is to run back to back long runs. Run long one day and again the next. So I told myself that it must feel exactly like this and pretended to be training for an ultra.
It helped with my kime. Kime is a Japanese term from karate where you have intense concentration and focus and yet you are completely relaxed until the very last moment when everything tenses up for the strike. So mentally I was focusing just on that next short kilometer while at the same time trying to relax every muscle in my body that wasn’t needed for running.
I was so grateful when I crossed that 22 kilometer finish line for this training run and I really enjoyed walking that last kilometer home. Now for two days of healing ending with my next karate class Tuesday night. It’s good to push yourself past seemingly impossible barriers only to find that the other side is indeed reachable. But it is also good to reward yourself with some constructive rest and healing time too.