Uh, I Think I'm Gonna Puke

I set out on an easy 4-miler this morning, and was surprised at how good I felt.  I think I've come full circle from a slightly depressing recovery week to an exciting and invigorating build week.  I'm sure there are several things that contributed to this, but as a somewhat seasoned runner I know that if you train for anything long enough you experience highs and lows.  You can have the best week of your life and think you're on track to becoming an Olympic champion, and then have a week that makes you want to lie on the ground and throw a tantrum like a two-year-old and question why you run at all.

Fortunately for me, I think I'm in a good week...for now.  I started the week running with a friend who asked if he could tag along for some runs.  I told him my run schedule and approximate paces for each run, and he said, "Alright, I'll be there."  I was a bit surprised that he was going to just pick up running and do all of my runs with me.  I started thinking I was under-training or something.

Our first run was a four-mile run along the Potomac that was rather uneventful, but it was fun to run with someone else.  We talked throughout the run and maintained a roughly 9:00/mi pace.  The next day was a six-mile run to the Washington Monument.  He took off at a sub 8:00/mi pace and it was all I could do to keep up.  I tried to reassure myself that he was an inexperienced runner, and that this crazy pace out of the blocks would pass.  Around the 3.5 mile mark I asked him if he had been watching any of the Olympics, and he replied with, "Uh, I think I'm gonna puke."  From there the pace gradually got slower, and slower...and slower :-P  We slowed down to a roughly 10:30/mi pace for awhile, and then speed up a bit finishing with a 9:15 last mile.

As I said before, today was a 4-miler, and he met me in the lobby at 5:45am to let me know that he wasn't going running with me today.  It's unfortunate, because he clearly has some natural athletic talent.  He just needs to learn how to pace himself.  I've been there plenty of times before though, every runner has.  He'll be out of town this weekend so he'll miss out on the long run, but I hope he decides to give it another go next week.  I'll just need to make sure that I set the pace :-)

Nonetheless, it kind of made me feel good to know that at least someone can't handle my daily grind with running.  That's actually where the title for my blog came from (not today's run, but the daily grind of continuous running).  In the book 'Once a Runner' by John L. Parker Jr. his main character Quinton Cassidy is a miler at a fictional university.  He is mentored by Bruce Denton, a former Olympic gold medalist, and Quinton and teammate Jerry Mizner refer to Denton's workout schedule as "the trial of miles."  Throughout the book they talk about new athletes that come along to train with the Olympic star who show up for several workouts thinking that each run isn't that hard.  As time goes on the life slowly fades from the hopeful runners as their gaze shifts from the run at hand to the countless number of miles they will cover if they keep running with Bruce.  Inevitably Quinton and Jerry are the only ones who really survive the 'trial of miles' and they often mutter to each other, "trial of miles...and miles of trials."

Happy Running!