This week, I faced what was probably the biggest challenge of my marathon training of the summer: finding time for the long run. My schedule was busy enough with a few overnight shoots while prepping for back to school and keeping the boys busy in the second last week of summer. Throwing marathon training into the mix was simply another test in creativity and time management.
Yesterday, my run club, Lions Valley Athletics, volunteered to organize a training run over all or part of the Oakville Half-Marathon course for participants. It was a win-win for so many. Runners had an opportunity to run the course, we collected donations for the Oakville-Milton Humane Society, and Lions Valley Athletics had the opportunity to give back to the running community. While I wanted to focus on my own training – to run long on my own – it was a great opportunity for me support other runners in their personal goals. So I ran 18K on my own and finished at Coronation Park, where the group met. After that, I ran another 17K with them, finishing the day’s mileage with 35K.
I was thrilled with hitting that distance (which equates to 22 miles). It wasn’t just reaching it, though, that was important; it was what I learned along the way. Since the training run was with new runners, the pace was slower than what I normally train at. Knowing this, I made sure that my earlier run was at my marathon pace so that I could run like a Kenyan with the others. You see, Kenyans run really slowly on their easy days so that their bodies can recover from the speed workouts and hard running that they do on others. This is something that I’m not good at: mixing up the paces. Coach Kevin and my friends often tease me about being a metronome because I tend to lock into a pace and hold it; the problem is I run that pace through the warm-up, workout and cool down. Yesterday, I learned to slow my pace down. I had to because that is what the other runners needed. I learned how to “run like a Kenyan.”
Now I finally understand how much of a difference in variety of paces – from a marathon pace to an easier cool down pace – makes in how I feel the next day. Today, my legs feel fresh. I’m pleasantly tired, but I couldn’t wait to head out for an easy run this morning. And the best part? My feet don’t hurt – at all.
Yesterday, the ladies we coached through the route left feeling that they had a good run and are ready for their half-marathon in a few weeks. Me, I left with a better understanding of pacing, the success of the longest run yet in my marathon cycle and satisfaction of supporting other runners. It was truly a win-win.
