6/17/11
17 miles / 2:35 / 9:07 avg pace
*A 4:45 wake-up call and I’m home calling into a meeting at 8:30! I love Friday morning long runs. Today I did my version of long, slow distance. I’m aiming to run a few of my long runs a little slower this cycle.
I had an aha moment the other night reading Born To Run. They were talking about embracing fatigue…and the only way to really conquer fatigue in training and racing is to learn to love it. Very interesting! Fatigue won’t be going away anytime soon (unless someone comes up with that magic pill so we can all run tirelessly for hours) so we might as well welcome it like a house guest.
Whether or not you hit the Wall during a marathon, you will experience fatigue to some extent. Fatigue can be the Grim Reaper to some or just a god-awful pacer to others (I tend to experience the latter). But what if we anticipate it’s arrival and embrace it? We won’t give in; we won’t let fatigue slow us down. We become friends with fatigue. Imagine that!
Call me loony but I’m giving this a go. Seriously. I’m welcoming fatigue during my hard effort runs – speed, tempo, and long. It can only help with my mental game come 9/11/11.
I want to give a HUGE shout out to Cindi (my running twin) and Sarah, Jennifer, and Heather (Always Training Trio) who are all running the Grandma’s Marathon tomorrow! Best of luck ladies!
I’m reading “Running on Empty” by Marshall Ulrich and he talks about a lot of the same things, embracing pain and fatigue. It probably sounds insane to the non-runner, but it makes sense to me! I still don’t think I’ll ever be as bad ass as him, but I can dream. 🙂
That book is on my must-read list.
What a great long run! I love getting them done on a Friday. Frees up the weekend for relaxing and some guilt-free beers!
Thanks for the shout out. I can’t wait for Grandma’s!!
Beers will be had tonight! Good luck tomorrow; I’ll be sending good thoughts your way!
You are crazzzzzy awesome to run that distance that early!! Eat a lot today!
No worries, I got that covered 😉
Good for you! I am doing a long run Friday next week, I love having it done with to start the weekend. I like that idea, you are so right, you know that fatigue is coming, so you might as well be ready for it! Maybe I’ll keep that in mind during my race tomorrow!
You are seriously amazing to get up that early & run 17 miles. Did you fuel first? Were you dehydrated from sleeping? Sorry to be so nosy – I’m curious! I have a few running books on my kindle, but I’m too bummed to read them right now (injured). Soon! 🙂
Thank you! I actually don’t eat before I run – long run or short run (I will eat before a race though). It’s a little unusual but it works for me (I wrote a post about this awhile ago: http://runthelongroad.com/2011/03/14/coming-clean/). I’m not dehydrated either. I always carry my hand-held water bottle though and do drink a lot during the run. So I do pretty much roll out of bed and go (which is good considering it’s so early!).
Don’t you love getting your workouts done first thing in the AM?? I always feel so productive and so proud of myself when I do.