Friday Ramble 10/28/22

This week: The art of managing your run. Plus, a new adventure awaits and further offseason plans. 

Apologies for not posting a Ramble last week, but that 10-day cold left me frustrated and beaten. It’s hard to write about running when you’re not able to run! 

The good news is I’m finally beginning to emerge from the post-race recovery cycle. If you’re keeping track at home, it’s been more than a month since the Vermont 50, and I’m just starting to feel like my old self again. 

Earlier this week, I went on a 6-mile run to gauge my fitness. The goal was to start easy over the first three miles and then use my discretion over the final three. If I felt like upping the ante and going faster, I could do that. If I felt like remaining chill, I could do that too. 

To be sure, there are guardrails in place for this type of run. It would be foolish to churn as hard as possible over the final three miles and treat the run like a workout when that wasn’t the goal. The point was actually two fold: To see how my body reacted to exerting more effort, and how I felt about pushing myself. 

Effort and feel are two sides of the same coin; different, but ultimately linked. While effort can be measured in various forms (pace, heart rate, etc.,) how you feel is intrinsic. That can make it tricky to interpret what your mind is telling you about your body, and vice-versa. 

When you can match perception of effort with performance data, you’re probably on the right track. Even that’s not universal because there are a host of factors that can influence either side of the equation. All of which makes managing your run just as much an art as science. 

With practice and intention, this process can become easier to understand. Here are a few ways to help you become a more intuitive runner.