From now on, every long run will be a new distance PR
This week marked uncharted territory: Up until Saturday, I knew what it felt like to do a run of my scheduled distance. I knew what to expect of a seven mile run, or a ten miler, and I even had a handful of experiences of 13 mile runs. But Saturday was 15 miles. This was new.
Although the math is obvious, this fact didn't occur to me until somewhere around mile 13 of my long run on Saturday. Suddenly every step was a new distance PR. It's been six or seven years since I set my last distance record, when I trained for my first half marathon.
The realization was exciting. I'll soon have a series of new benchmarks. When someone talks about a 20 mile run, I'll know what they mean and how it felt to me.
It was also a little sad. The most rewarding thing about training for my first half marathon was setting new distance records and being able to see how far I could run. But training for a full marathon and setting distance records has a certain finality to it. The odds that I'll ever set another distance record after I finish the 26.2 miles of my marathon are low.
It's not impossible of course. Nothing stops a person from going out for a 27 mile jog of their own volition, or signing up for an ultra-marathon that can cover 30, 50, or even 100 miles. But realistically, the number of people who participate is few and the personality traits that lead them to do such a thing are not ones I usually exhibit. Moderation is my guiding principle and ultra-marathons are anything but moderate.
So there's going to be excitement and a little bit of sadness with every long run now. It's like this description of the Tao I saw many years ago. Picture a yin-yang, the black and white Chinese circle. There's an arrow pointing to the black half with the white dot, labeled "here's the good in the bad." On the opposite side, there's an arrow pointing to the white half with the black dot, labeled, "here's the bad in the good." And the caption below it: "And this is life."
Here's the good in the bad, and here's the bad in the good. And this is life.
Week 10 Plan
Total: 29 miles
Sunday: 3 miles
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: HIIT
Wednesday: 7 miles
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 15 miles
Week 10 Results
Total: 24.76 miles
Sunday: 2.94 miles
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: HIIT
Wednesday: 7 miles
Thursday: Rest*
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 14.82 miles
*studying for my final exam in accounting took priority over the 4 mile run, but not over my long run.
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