Mileage Over Minutes

Last week was a struggle. My mind said go go go, my body said wait, wait wait. Combined Monday and Tuesday of last weeks I ran 19 miles. I felt good, sorta.

My mind said that I should get back to running full time, after all it had been nearly three weeks since the marathon and like I told myself before I ran it, I would take some serious time off after I had ran it. And thats what I did. The week after I didn’t run at all. At my best I could have jogged, slowly at that and I wanted too but I promised my girlfriend and myself that I would recover almost fully and then get back to running like I had pre-marathon. I had a new goal in mind after running the LA in 3 hour, 3 minutes, I now want a sub 3 hour marathon time and my next shot at during that is 7/29/2012 at the San Francisco.  I thought to myself that I should create a goal and that it should start two weeks after I ran LA.  I write this about a month after LA and I’m just starting to get back to pre LA condition. My legs feel strong, my recovery is good and I am taking precautions about running too much, too fast knowing that I literally have 3 months until the SF Marathon.

Also, I could run that marathon tomorrow and probably finish in the 3 hour 10 minute area.  What is going to be a challenge at SF are the hills and the roughly three miles that I am going to climb on the Golden Gate bridge. Yes, both ways the bridge it at an incline. Oh ya, and the 530 AM start time. That will be fun.

Ok, back to today. My right heel continues to hurt and ache. I can walk, but without shoes it is very painful. In the morning and the evening it is the most painful, when I get going throughout the day I don’t really have a problem.  One of the smaller goals that I have been working on for some time now is cramming 9 miles into an hour and I almost did it today. I did it in 61 minutes almost exactly. I felt particularly strong at mile 8 and I knew that I had a shot at doing it.  It was a bit windy here in Long Beach today and for the most part it was a headwind. I felt winded at times today because I felt that I was carrying around more weight than I was used too. And I am. About 5 pounds more than when I ran the marathon. Today I weigh 179. I have eaten more than in the past but I felt like I had to get some of my features back, that maybe I’d lost too much weight in the first place on Weight Watchers.

I tell people that running is a habit for individuals who have patience.  It is also for one for people who are looking to build patience. I feel that I am one of both of those people. I am patient, but I am also hasty some times in my life. I bring this up because of the bad habits I feel that I have in running is looking at my watch to much and the physical and mental effect that it has on me. When I look at my watch I have made it a symbolic act.  I say this because when I do look at it, it only displays two numbers, and they fixed in a way as to remind myself what really matters to me and in the orders that they matter to me. Its mileage over minutes.

Even on the worst days that I have running, or maybe when I go out for a run when there is something pressing and stressing on my mind I tell myself, mileage over minutes. Words to live by in my opinion if are going to take distance running seriously no matter who are you. Why I feel this way is that if you are constantly  mentally grinding yourself over a time that you are looking for before you worry about the mileage and the repetitions of distances to achieve those times then you are wasting your time. I still struggle with this mentality even though I tell it to myself all the time and have more months. I’m sure some where some body has written the exact same words that I have, but nobody came to me with such a simple way of looking at things.

I have friends that run and the majority of them are new to running and they want results that usually their bodies are not ready to handle. I worry for them because it is a new runners mistake to take too much on when running long distance and it can lead to burn out, fatigue and injury.

I’m concerned about all three of these equally. It makes me concerned when new runners run a 5K and then next month sign up for a 10K in hopes that they are going to be able to finish it with a doubled time of a 5K, of course because it is just double the distance.  When in reality I believe that they should get a good grasp on the 5K distance ahead of moving on to longer races because eventually they will be able to double their 5K time at 10K race and even look forward to doing so.

Fatigue concerns me because I know that as a runner who is new they don’t feel fully invested into it when it could be life changing and because they want results up front right away they will do it too much and mentally and physically it will not be attractive to them any longer. Distance running is both a checking and saving account for your body.  When you run a 5K for the first time you draw on everything you have because your excited and you want to prove to yourself and others that you can run and finish the race.  But as your graduate to a 10K and further distances it becomes a savings account because you can draw on those previous experiences and all of the savings/wealth of knowledge that you have. Not to mention all of the mileage that you have accrued running at least 4 times a week.  You no longer have to draw everything you have to run and finish races.

And of course injury.  Injuries are a part of running no matter which way you cut it. You get injured and your going to have to figure out what to do about it and whether you can run with it or not.  I have  a feeling that this dissuades a lot of people from running because they don’t want to chance hurting themselves. Every runner understands that. My best advice. Listen to your body. If you planned to run 5 miles and your legs feel tight, stop running and walk. Stretch if you would like. I’m not a big stretcher myself and have had minimal leg injuries because of it. If you feel winded and your heart is pounding, remember mileage over minutes, slow down and let the milage come to you. You are not going to able to run that next race from a coffin.

If running is a habit that you are going to allow to mature in your life then you will also come to a better understanding about body than you did before. The more you run, the more you will have time to think about ways not to injure yourself.  Heck, and maybe even change habits that you thought were good when you were first running and now you’ve learned that they aren’t.  For example, something that I have learned and keep in mind on longer runs is that it ok to be slower than when covering a shorter distance.  I used to go out and pound the pavement at the same cadence no matter the distance and I would pressure myself for equally good results no matter which distance I ran that day.  For instance, today I ran 9 miles. When I think of running that distance I break it up into 3 5K runs and used each of the three for something different.  First 3, concentrate on getting a good pace, find your stride, start to sweat. Second 3, find your breathing pattern, maintain cadence, stay mentally engaged. Last 3, ask yourself, “what’s left in the tank”, start to concentrate on finishing time, think about tomorrow.