High Mileage Magic

When you think of the key elements of success what do you think of? Discipline, goal setting, pregmatism, etc.? I've been avoiding taking a good hard look at my running for some time now but living in my own denial had gotten the better of me. I was jealous of everybody else and beginning to hate my own running. Finishing a marathon? Not a 'real' accomplishment because it was 'too slow'. Attempting a hundred miles? Not a success because I didn't finish. I couldn't smile when my husband hit a new 5k PR and I winced every time my running partner talked about her 4:30 marathon or sub-2 half. I didn't like being the jealous and unsupportive person I was becoming so I was forced to look at myself.



All around me people were saying, "If you just run higher mileage you'll get faster." And I was replying, "If I was faster I'd have time to run higher mileage!" People were telling me, "Add speedwork and you'll get faster." And again, the excuse, "If I add speedwork I'll just get hurt!" I was stuck in my safe little routine of running 10, 15, or 20 miles a week at around the same paces every run. Maybe I'd throw in a shorter run and get a 10 minute mile average pace and think for a split second "I must be improving". All the while I was really just deluding myself into believing I was 'just built slow' or 'all slow twitch muscle' or whatever else I could come up with to excuse my laziness.



Well, something changed since I took a look at myself. I started building my mileage up. In the last five weeks I've run 27, 30, 26, 25, and 40 miles. I've become good friends with speedwork every Wednesday, sometimes on the highschool track and sometimes on the trail. One week it might be 400 meter repeats and the next it might be a ladder but I always do something. A friend suggested I start using the fancy heart rate monitor that came with my Garmin Forerunner. A couple test runs later I know my heart rate zones and what pace I can run to keep my heart rate in a particular zone. Thanks to that I can now judge my running pace better based on effort level alone and I can look at my Garmin less.

I'm sure right now you're wondering where all this is going so I'll get to the point. My husband has been bugging me to run another 5k with him. My jealousy had kept getting the best of me and it wasn't fun anymore. I'd miss a PR by 30 seconds and he'd get a new PR by almost a minute. It had become routine for me to miss an age group award by a small margin and then the whole ride home I'd stew about how it sucked that I'd never be 'good enough'. Well after 6 weeks of higher mileage and incorporating speedwork I finally decided to go ahead and give it another try at the Pleasant Hills Community Days 5k.

I left my Garmin at home and ran by feel. The course was hilly which messed with my perceived exertion level. I was sure I was off my goal pace (roughly 9:10/mile) and I gave up hopes of a PR early on as the hills took their toll. I made a new goal of just running the whole thing at my goal exertion level (80-85% of my max heart rate). As I reached the turn around my husband was just heading back. I felt a faint hope because he's normally SO far ahead of me. Then I caught up and realized he was just having a REALLY bad day. I gave him a pat on the back and carried on. Thankfully we've always given eachother the freedom to run our own race. I would feel awful if I held him back and I hope he felt the same when I left him on this day.

As I neared he finish I decided to try to pick off the nearest 3 people. I really wanted to pass someone for once! But it wasn't to be. As I picked up my pace they increased theirs and I never gained on even one of them. However, it gave me something to strive for and focus on besides the rasping of my breath in my throat and the burning in my lungs. As I neared the finish line I saw the clock just turning over to 27 minutes. I was sure my eyes were playing tricks on me so I picked up the pace to get a closer look. It wasn't a hallucination! I began to choke up knowing that PR was mine even if I walked across the line at this point. I pulled myself together and a spectator shouted that it was time to pick it up and go. I put the hammer down and tried to reach the finish shoot by the 27:40 mark. It was a little farther than I originally thought and I ended up finishing in 27:46! It was all I could do to stumble to a bare patch of asphalt and lay down but I've never been so happy in my life!

As I said earlier, I rarely get an age group award and when I have it's always been third place. I didn't have much hope even with a 1:30 improvement on my old PR but my husband agreed to wait with me to find out the official placings and I'm so glad he did! I got second place in my age group (only missed first place by 23 seconds!) and was awarded a gigantic trophy which is proudly displayed next to the TV in the gym now! I was so high on endorphins that I came home and ran another 11 miles to celebrate.



I just can't believe I never gave myself a chance before. If I had believed in myself a little more and berated myself a little less I would have saved everyone in my house a lot of grief. I am really excited to see how much I can improve now and I'm even dreaming of a sub-25 minute 5k next year. Maybe I'll get my sub-2 hour half marathon and maybe, just maybe I'll get that sub-4 hour marathon I've always dreamed of. All I know is that I'm not about to turn back now.

And thanks to Heather over at I have another chance to prove myself at the marathon distance. I was the lucky winner of her Race and Relax weekend giveaway! And if you would like to be the next lucky winner you can head over to her blog and enter for your chance to win a Fairy Dust for a Cure package. All of the proceeds benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the goodies are well worth a small donation!

So believe in yourself, train hard (and smart!), and put out some good karma by supporting Heather's Team In Training fundraising and the LLS. It will come back to you!