When Did Slow Get Hard?
This weekend was all about the run…a 20 miler to be exact. The run was scheduled for Saturday with a 3 hr bike on Sunday. Well, being spring and all here in Colorado, Saturday started snowy with 40 mph gusts forecasted. I opted for a 1 hr trainer ride and a trip to the movie theater instead.
Sunday I woke to clear blue skies and no morning percipitation forecasted. I headed down to Waterton Canyon for my 20 miles. As I headed up the canyon I got into a good pace. I looked at my Garmin and noticed I was hitting at 10 min pace. I thought to myself , “slow it down Sparky! You’re doing 20 today….not 10 miles like you have been for the past 2 months.”
Slow....the new hard
I had an absolute great time on the run. Every imaginable waterfall up the canyon was running and everything was green. The road was dry except for the occasional mud hole. The fellow runners out where friendly and ticking off their mileage.
My friend Kendra caught up with my on my way back down the canyon and we ran together. I noticed I was having a hard time feeling my own zone once I began to run with her. It was like my body was imitating her running form. I kept trying to get into my own grove again but that never really happened.
We hit the parking lot at mile 13; I reloaded my water bottles and headed back out solo for my last 7. So this is where it got a bit tricky. See, I haven’t run more than 10 miles in over two months. As I hit the road again I was having a hard time. I was struggling to find my form and my groove. I kept adjusting this and that and finally somewhere around mile 15 I found my sweet spot.
At mile 16.5 I turned around and headed for the barn (car). And this is when I realized that somewhere in the last two months running slow got hard! You see. Throughout the whole 20 miles, whenever I slowed down to the pace I ran all last year….it felt HARD. It felt like Torture! The moment I picked up my pace and held it right below threshold….running felt MUCH EASIER!
I don’t know how in the heck this happened…but it did! I got faster! Not only did I get faster but running faster got easier than running slower! WTH? I never would have expected that! I had no idea that one day running right below threshold would be easier for me than running at a slower pace? I mean, I PRed my time on a 20 mile training run by 15 minutes!! HUH??? WTH??
While I was running I would experiment with running slower and it just felt hard. The minute I picked up my pace and ran faster, running got easier. Now part of this I attribute to my Newton Running Shoes! I am sure that the shoe helps propel me forward when I run faster! (Did I mention how much I love my Newtons??) And now that I can run faster the shoes help that much more!
I never would have imagined that running faster could be easier than running slow. But it is. At least it was Sunday. In the next two weeks I have a 24 mile run then the Fort Collins Marathon on May 9th. I’m building my run and the next two weekends will tell if this is just a fluke or if I truly am a faster runner this year. Only time/mileage will tell…..until then…..
Faster just got easier
