"No, I saw you at the end of your run. That did not look like fun". Mike's direct quote when I asked him last night whether he wanted to join me on my morning run. Mike lives at the end of my running route (in fact - I cut through his yard to get to his neighborhood) - and I use his driveway as the start and finish line. And I guess I looked pretty worn out when I came in yesterday.
Ever since youth I had made myself believe I was "Not a runner". My body simply wasn't build for it. And I took this belief into my 4th living decade before I challenged it seriously. I remember the day lively - I was in the hospital-bed watching TV, and waiting on the results of a bone marrow full body scan. I felt scared, and pretty miserable in general, after I had been taken in with 103 degree fever a few hours ago.
In the previous weeks I had neglected pneumonia in such a serious fashion - that I was under a serious antibiotics regime - that were given to me throughout the day intravenously via a semi-permanent hookup line in my left arm. That Saturday morning I grew instantly allergic to one of the antibiotics. I did not know this at the time - but this was the reason for the fever, and feeling so sick.
So while I was waiting for the results, I was watching the live coverage of the 2012 Houston Marathon that day. And what I witnessed was a whole lotta runners that had bodies - to put it mildly - far less "build for running" than my frame. Finishing it - no less. So that's is when I made myself the promise: "If I get out of this unscarred - I am running that marathon next year".
The cancer tests proved negative, the antibiotics were changed, and three months later I found myself completely healed without any evidence of the emboli in my lung earlier that year that caused all the ruckus. It was time to make good on a promise. And so on 2013 I ran (and finished) the very, very rainy Houston Marathon in 4:45.
But - back to Yesterday's run and the typical way a workout run progresses for me. Before I start, I have to fight a ton of resistance to get going. The night before, I am looking forward to the run, but on the morning itself, there is NONE of this motivation left. There are mornings that I am running around in my running gear, but find excuses not to go run that morning. We call that a "dress exercise" in our household now. If I make it out (which means there is not a slightest, foggiest change it will rain in the next 2 hours, the moon is rightly aligned, and the dogs all gave me a nod of approval), I start at Mike & Cae's driveway.
The first 2 minutes of running are just pure torture. I run without any food intake - because I want my body to learn how to burn fat for energy (Ketosis). My body does not know this, and is just signaling everything it can to my brain saying "We are NOT up for this - we have nothing to burn for energy - please turn around immediately and eat something". Fortunately, this really only last 2 minutes, and after that we enter the state of "For Free".
Before I really knew what it was, I kind of described it as "That period of time I can run 'For Free'". It seems as if during this time, I do not get very fatigued, and I can just complete my running motion without finding it very hard to be motivated. When training, this period gets longer and longer. At the peak of my marathon training, the 'for free' period lasted up to 70 minutes. Again, even then - the first 2 minutes are always hard.
Somewhere at the end of this "For Free" period - I enter "Running High". I am starting to get tired, and I can no longer do multiple - parallel multitasks in my brain anymore. It feels like my brain becomes a single serial processor - only room for one problem at a time. By accident, I found that instead of focusing on running - I discovered I can focus on a specific problem I face at work, with computer programming, with web design, with marketing strategy, etc, etc. And this single focus allows me to somehow see angles and perspectives of the problem that I had missed before.
Esther (my better half) has witnessed this first hand at the end of a run - after completion I am just chock-full of ideas on several specific issues - it is as if the idea-bucket runneth over.
But it does not always come. Or perhaps I just need to be in better shape first before I experience this again. Because yesterday the 'For Free' period lasted 17 minutes, and the total run was almost 40. Teaching your body to 'Find a way' to keep running fast if you are tired is hard, and that must have been easy to deduct from my facial expression and body language when I arrived back at Mike's driveway.
I know there are some thoughts that especially training for the run part of the ironman does not have to be about speed (because on the final day you will not run that fast - it being the last leg) - but I always race against myself and somewhere along the run I feel the competitive need to see if today is a day that I can set a personal record on the distance I am about to run.
Dang, I am competitive. At least in my mind.
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