Run # 4
- Details
- Category: The Runs
- Published on Saturday, 29 October 2011 20:43
- Written by Administrator
- Hits: 143
Run # 4 – the impromptu
It was a Wednesday evening – 26 October 2011, up until then the week had being busy and stressful at many levels. I set out around 17:30 for a gentle training session, I did not have the intention of running fast or far, this was suposed to be just a conditioning run to keep my training going.
About 20 minutes into the run I noticed I had managed to find the pace; the pace I had so eagerly tried to find during the previous 3 runs; a pace I had always failed to find up until then; a pace I had started to refer to as the elusive pace. It is difficult to describe it. My heart was not working too hard, always below 140 BPM, I had somehow found a way of sustaining a comfortable bounce by running just on the balls of my feet with my talons hardly touching the ground. I had tried this many times and failed; perhaps I am now fitter but I also think that my new running trousers could have played a role by keeping lower leg muscles warm on chilly and windy autumn evening. When I realised that I had run like this for nearly 40 minutes and covered almost 6 kilometres I, of course, started to consider if could run like for 10.8 kilometres. This is how a simple training session became and experiment. The pace is why I decided to run the full 10.8 kilometres.
Shortly after making this the decision the elements started interfering, it started to rain. It felt as if heavy rain was on its way and changed my course, by heading home; I also had to increase the pace because I did not want to get drench. In the end the element decided to be merciful, it turned out to be just a gentle autumn shower.
By the time it stopped raining I had lost the pace and had to reconsider, at least, for a brief period of time if running the full 10.8 kilometres was still a good idea. Surprisingly it did not take me too long to find the pace again and I, of course, decided to run the full distance. After making this decision, the only challenge left, not a small one, was to find a circuitous route to cover the cover the remaining distance, about 4 kilometres. Unfortunately, when it is dark I cannot run in the common and up to the downs.
The main highlight of this run, other than having found the pace I was so eagerly looking for, was what I termed as the ‘wooden foot’, a sensation which I can only describe as my left feeling as if it was made of wood instead of flesh. It was a strange feeling because it was not painful, it did not prevent me for running, my left foot just felt like a block, ‘a block of wood’.
1 hour and 49 minutes after I started I finished the 10.8 kilometres this is 10 to 15 minutes slower than my previous 3 runs but at the end of it I did not feel as tired as in of the previous runs. I definitely had a sense of achievement at the end of the race, a sense that I had cracked something.
If I had to describe the pace with a single sentence, I would say that the pace in a sustained mental state.