Running time, and time while running - two examples of how subjective the concept of "time" is.
One of the potentially offputting aspects of running, particularly when it comes to training for something like a marathon, is the sheer amount of time that it takes. And for the most part, it's not really a flexible amount of time. Unlike other, non-physical jobs, being more focussed and concentrating harder isn't going to get your scheduled distance finished any faster. Or at least not to any meaningful extent.
It wasn't until I started training for ATB that I truly appreciated the sheer amount of time involved. Intellectually, sure, but not in that gut-level-this-is-consuming-my-life way. Until that point, my longest runs had been half marathons, and my longest training runs were probably no more than an hour and a half. It is possible that I did the full distance in advance at least once, but I don't remember for sure and certainly wouldn't put money on it.
Along came ATB and the joy of more training. Two hours. 2:15. 2:30. The longest was probably 28 km in 2:40. And those weekend runs start to involve more commitment. Because, of course, it's not just about the run. It's also about all those peripherals to the run. Getting up early enough to eat something in time for it to digest. Different transportation to a different gym with a bigger track. More time worrying about clothes, and water, and all the little bits and pieces that seem to go along with running for an extended period of time. Longer cool downs and post-run recovery time in the shower.
It was worth it, of course, but upon finishing ATB came the decision to ramp up to a marathon and then there was an even bigger time commitment. And to a certain extent my conscious mind didn't want to deal with the requirements, just wanted to let the body take over. Because to think about it in advance, in terms of time, was so intimidating. "Let's see: LSD of 28 km. It took me 2 1/2 hours to run 30 km, and that was a race. An LSD is supposed to be slower. So let's say it should take somewhere around 2:40. That means I'm going to go out and run two hours and forty minutes pretty much without any significant breaks. Okay... Well, let's just keep putting one foot in front of the other and try not to think about the total time involved..."
Everyone must work out their own strategies for dealing with this (or at least everyone who feels a need to deal with this). Sometimes I would map out a route in advance that was the right length, and try not to think too much about the time, just about getting to the next point. Sometimes I would concentrate on an approximate time for the required distance, and just run that time. Eventually my preferred approach became training with the Garmin, which would tell me how far I'd gone, and let me maintain flexibility in determining how much further to go in which directions in order to reach a point that would fulfill the distance requirement and have me finishing close to home.
And strangely enough, most of the time, once actually running, the total time didn't seem to be such a big deal. It just was. As long as my legs and lungs still had the energy, it was sometimes a source of some amazement, but not of overwhelming strain. Of course, there were some rather miserable runs in the heat, when I simply refused to dwell on the fact that I had X amount of time left, at minimum, in order to get this week's LSD out of the way. And towards the end of the really long runs - the 30+ km runs, the peak weeks of training, I was feeling both the distance and the time. Oh, how I was feeling it! Especially that 38 km - I am so glad to have done it, and will do it again because it seemed to work for me, but that was one heck of a long haul...
Almost invariably, once the run was out of the way, would be this sense of wonder that it happened at all. So many times I'd be getting ready to shower after, peeling off my salt-streaked clothes and sort of not believing that my body had just covered that distance under its own steam, in a relatively short period of time, and in the main was no worse for wear. At least nothing that some stretching, a shower, some ice and some just plain resting wouldn't fix. And then it would be ready to do it all over again, maybe plus some, a week later.
It was a bit of a strange feeling at the point where 21.1 km no longer seemed like a such a big deal. As a race, sure. Races are always a big deal, always produce lots of anxiety. But as a long run? Not so much. Eminently do-able. During a half marathon, 16 km was always my danger zone, the point where it would feel the whole run was collapsing, and I still get some anxiety as that point approaches. But by and large it's become just another km along the way. After Sunday, I have a feeling that my new scary point (assuming everything else is okay) is somewhere around 34 km. With more training perhaps that will pass as well.
Time spent racing is its own convoluted story. Until the last year or so, I spent most of my time running a certain time, not a certain distance. Periodically checking the distance to get an idea of average speed, but mostly just running for whatever time I had available. Naturally there were days when the clock seemed to move so slowly, and it was just a matter of keeping going in the knowledge that it never actually stopped and that in the same time as always my run would be finished.
But somehow, in a race, time speeds up. There were a few times towards the end of Scotiabank where the seconds seemed to be moving so slowly, but that's atypical. In a half marathon, where my standard goal is to do the distance in no more than 1:45, the minutes for each km seem to tick off so quickly, and I am forever checking the total time to see if it's averaging 5:00/km. And even in my two marathons, the first hour, even the first two hours, were gone before I knew it. And it didn't seem so bad to think, "Okay, distance more than half gone, time should be more than half gone too, you can do it..."
Of course, I also know that awful feeling at a point where a race is not going well, and my "banked" time gets used up, and then I'm into extra time, and just can't move any faster, and the minutes seem to be going by like seconds. When I look at my km by km data from Ottawa, and see that 39 to 40 km was over 7 minutes, I remember how that felt - hurting, not able to keep any kind of pace, and the banner nowhere in sight as the time just piled up...
Ah well - no races in sight until ATB, and we are just around the corner (sort of) from winter. There will be lots of time for the minutes to pass slowly while running on the treadmill or the indoor track. Last year we were running outside quite often right up to the end of December - hope we can manage the same this year. Doing the hamster impersonation gets rather trying...
Quick note: recovery from last Sunday seems to be complete and it was very tempting to run today. But I'm superstitious enough to stick to the Tuesday plan. However, I did have a pretty good stationary bike and elliptical workout. Still had energy to burn - definitely need to get out there again and work some of it off!
One of the potentially offputting aspects of running, particularly when it comes to training for something like a marathon, is the sheer amount of time that it takes. And for the most part, it's not really a flexible amount of time. Unlike other, non-physical jobs, being more focussed and concentrating harder isn't going to get your scheduled distance finished any faster. Or at least not to any meaningful extent.
It wasn't until I started training for ATB that I truly appreciated the sheer amount of time involved. Intellectually, sure, but not in that gut-level-this-is-consuming-my-life way. Until that point, my longest runs had been half marathons, and my longest training runs were probably no more than an hour and a half. It is possible that I did the full distance in advance at least once, but I don't remember for sure and certainly wouldn't put money on it.
Along came ATB and the joy of more training. Two hours. 2:15. 2:30. The longest was probably 28 km in 2:40. And those weekend runs start to involve more commitment. Because, of course, it's not just about the run. It's also about all those peripherals to the run. Getting up early enough to eat something in time for it to digest. Different transportation to a different gym with a bigger track. More time worrying about clothes, and water, and all the little bits and pieces that seem to go along with running for an extended period of time. Longer cool downs and post-run recovery time in the shower.
It was worth it, of course, but upon finishing ATB came the decision to ramp up to a marathon and then there was an even bigger time commitment. And to a certain extent my conscious mind didn't want to deal with the requirements, just wanted to let the body take over. Because to think about it in advance, in terms of time, was so intimidating. "Let's see: LSD of 28 km. It took me 2 1/2 hours to run 30 km, and that was a race. An LSD is supposed to be slower. So let's say it should take somewhere around 2:40. That means I'm going to go out and run two hours and forty minutes pretty much without any significant breaks. Okay... Well, let's just keep putting one foot in front of the other and try not to think about the total time involved..."
Everyone must work out their own strategies for dealing with this (or at least everyone who feels a need to deal with this). Sometimes I would map out a route in advance that was the right length, and try not to think too much about the time, just about getting to the next point. Sometimes I would concentrate on an approximate time for the required distance, and just run that time. Eventually my preferred approach became training with the Garmin, which would tell me how far I'd gone, and let me maintain flexibility in determining how much further to go in which directions in order to reach a point that would fulfill the distance requirement and have me finishing close to home.
And strangely enough, most of the time, once actually running, the total time didn't seem to be such a big deal. It just was. As long as my legs and lungs still had the energy, it was sometimes a source of some amazement, but not of overwhelming strain. Of course, there were some rather miserable runs in the heat, when I simply refused to dwell on the fact that I had X amount of time left, at minimum, in order to get this week's LSD out of the way. And towards the end of the really long runs - the 30+ km runs, the peak weeks of training, I was feeling both the distance and the time. Oh, how I was feeling it! Especially that 38 km - I am so glad to have done it, and will do it again because it seemed to work for me, but that was one heck of a long haul...
Almost invariably, once the run was out of the way, would be this sense of wonder that it happened at all. So many times I'd be getting ready to shower after, peeling off my salt-streaked clothes and sort of not believing that my body had just covered that distance under its own steam, in a relatively short period of time, and in the main was no worse for wear. At least nothing that some stretching, a shower, some ice and some just plain resting wouldn't fix. And then it would be ready to do it all over again, maybe plus some, a week later.
It was a bit of a strange feeling at the point where 21.1 km no longer seemed like a such a big deal. As a race, sure. Races are always a big deal, always produce lots of anxiety. But as a long run? Not so much. Eminently do-able. During a half marathon, 16 km was always my danger zone, the point where it would feel the whole run was collapsing, and I still get some anxiety as that point approaches. But by and large it's become just another km along the way. After Sunday, I have a feeling that my new scary point (assuming everything else is okay) is somewhere around 34 km. With more training perhaps that will pass as well.
Time spent racing is its own convoluted story. Until the last year or so, I spent most of my time running a certain time, not a certain distance. Periodically checking the distance to get an idea of average speed, but mostly just running for whatever time I had available. Naturally there were days when the clock seemed to move so slowly, and it was just a matter of keeping going in the knowledge that it never actually stopped and that in the same time as always my run would be finished.
But somehow, in a race, time speeds up. There were a few times towards the end of Scotiabank where the seconds seemed to be moving so slowly, but that's atypical. In a half marathon, where my standard goal is to do the distance in no more than 1:45, the minutes for each km seem to tick off so quickly, and I am forever checking the total time to see if it's averaging 5:00/km. And even in my two marathons, the first hour, even the first two hours, were gone before I knew it. And it didn't seem so bad to think, "Okay, distance more than half gone, time should be more than half gone too, you can do it..."
Of course, I also know that awful feeling at a point where a race is not going well, and my "banked" time gets used up, and then I'm into extra time, and just can't move any faster, and the minutes seem to be going by like seconds. When I look at my km by km data from Ottawa, and see that 39 to 40 km was over 7 minutes, I remember how that felt - hurting, not able to keep any kind of pace, and the banner nowhere in sight as the time just piled up...
Ah well - no races in sight until ATB, and we are just around the corner (sort of) from winter. There will be lots of time for the minutes to pass slowly while running on the treadmill or the indoor track. Last year we were running outside quite often right up to the end of December - hope we can manage the same this year. Doing the hamster impersonation gets rather trying...
Quick note: recovery from last Sunday seems to be complete and it was very tempting to run today. But I'm superstitious enough to stick to the Tuesday plan. However, I did have a pretty good stationary bike and elliptical workout. Still had energy to burn - definitely need to get out there again and work some of it off!
posted by Jogger Barbie | 5:45 PM
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