Table of Marathons

11 MCM (not for time) 11 Wineglass (950/1442)
10 MCM (not for time) 09 MCM (348/1076)
09 Washington's Birthday Marathon (22/44) 08 MC Historic Half (51/210)
07 Frederick Marathon (32/60) 06 MCM (394/1076)
05 MCM (547/1047)

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Not Running, Stoicism, and Other Things

I started true speed work this year with tenth of a mile repeats along a section of country road at the entrance of our neighborhood. My first week included one sprint precariously called a repeat. I built up to 10 over the course of 15 or so weeks. I find the feeling of speed exhilarating and with it came a new sense of efficient flow in stride. I achieved a new sense of being light on my feet. My leg, arm, and core movements seemed to balance one another.

Greg McMillan puts describes it: "You feel these adaptations (improved neuromuscular function and acid buffering) as a smoother, less jerky stride when running at full speed. You feel that you are powerful and can simply fly across the ground. You begin to imagine yourself looking like the sprinters, smooth and powerful. Sprint zone training seems to greatly affect the torso of the body as you begin to run not just with your legs but to generate power through your stomach, pelvis and hips."

This form of training puts great stress on the posterior muscles: glutes, hamstrings, and calves. Minor aches gradually accumulated in my right hip and hamstring. They were minor and I ignored them. After a few weeks, I realized that they were not transient and were in fact slowly increasing.


So, I stopped running this weekend. Full stops have worked well for me in the past, healing in a few days what I suppose would otherwise take weeks. I'm fairly disciplined in my breaks, not letting the idleness affect my mood. This works as long as the break is not longer than a week or so. After than, despite on-going weight workouts, I'll begin to feel flabby and soft physically as well as mentally.


Epictetus tells us that our bodies are beyond our control and we are well to not base our identities or happiness on them. Yet in six years I have moulded my physical being from obesity to a physique that displays a level of athleticism that elicits comments from strangers. My body plays a significant role in my image of myself. Beyond that, I realize running is a spiritual act. All-weather running purifies me from the "You Deserve a Break Today" culture in which we live. We are immersed in unsustainable, self-serving, enervating cocoon of air-conditioning, recliners, glowing displays, and greasy, salty, sweet foods. The resulting mental and physical flabbiness is destroying our lives, our culture, and our planet. I can't influence our culture, but I can purify myself of it. The simple, sometimes brutal, experience of running all year in outside washes off the greasy film that our indolent lives deposit on us.


The hamstring soreness diminishes each day. Hopefully I will run again this coming weekend. I am going to use a classical training cycle: rebuild my mileage base, add stamina/tempo runs, and finally add speed. Amid all the miles of slow distance I've run over the years, I never realized how much I enjoyed going fast.

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