Bryan, Julie and I drove up to San Francisco for our 16 mile training run on Saturday.
Coach Scott set up a course that was like a tour of the northern part of the city. We ran past Fort Mason, the Marina, Coit Tower, the Presidio, and the Exploratorium. There were great views, but also great hills. Here is an approximate map of the course.
I was anxious about going for 16 miles since I had some problems during the 14-miler two weeks ago, when I had to drop back from the group for the last two miles because my legs were too sore.
To combat the longer distance this time, our coaches had a surprise: each group's run/walk ratio dropped back one notch. Our's went from 6:1 to 5:1, which slowed our pace from 9:30 to 10:30 min/mile. I made it all the way through the course on pace, and although the last mile was a little painful I wasn't nearly as wiped out as after the 14-miler.
I 'm beginning to learn that in running, 90% of the challenge is mental. My body didn't change all that much between those two Saturdays (although the exercises Wella gave me for my gluteus medius and tibialis anterior definitely made a difference.) What did change was my attitude. I did a better job of pacing myself mentally.
Sometime after the middle point I start to count down the miles. It's amazing what happens when you think, "only 5 miles left," "only 3 miles left," "one mile, come on!" I realized that when I do this, I'm basically telling my body that it's allowed to quit at some moment looming in the near future. This is a defeatist way of thinking. As soon as I start thinking about being done, I am.
I made it to the 13 mile mark without thinking much about how many miles were left. But as soon as I started counting down, my body started begging to quit. Suddenly the two miles ahead looked longer than the fourteen miles behind me. This was the lesson that 16 miles taught me.
As I promised in my post two weeks ago, I now have documentary evidence that runners do in fact walk into the ocean after our training runs! I snapped a few shots of the lunacy that I again failed to avoid. The water is painfully cold, mind you, so I bundled up in a fleece jacket this time. Here are the other photos.
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