It's all in my head

Two weeks ago, I had a long run of 2.5 hours. I ran it at a pace of 10 minutes and 23 seconds per mile. Anything slower than 10 minutes per mile is fairly slow for me, but long runs are supposed to be nice and slow. You're not supposed to kill yourself and fry your legs. You're definitely not supposed to go so hard that you can't finish the amount of time you are supposed to run, according to your training plan.

Today, I started out for a 3-hour run.
It was 5:30 a.m. and quite dark.
I thought about starting out at my usual, plodding, long-run pace.
Then I thought, "Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if I didn't do that?"
There's no time like the present to experiment. I really only have a few more really long workouts left this season during which I can experiment and see what happens.

I was also thinking about my running in general. Over short distances, I can keep up a pretty quick pace. When I know I have a long, long run, I tend to go very slowly. It makes sense. But a couple people over the years have asked why my marathon times are so slow. "You are in great shape. You could go faster than that," they would say. And I would think, "Sure, I can go faster. But not over 26 miles! I'd never finish!"

But when have I ever not finished?
Never.
I've never not finished.
I always hold something back.
Always.

Think about Muncie. I didn't even really run on the run. I was just sort of plodding along, making sure nothing bad happened.

I've thought about this before, of course. I even read a recent article about a study where they had athletes exercise to exhaustion. Then immediately after that, they had them do one more minute as hard as they could, and they were able to go even harder during that minute. Which shows they really could have gone longer before "exhaustion." You can do some amazing stuff if you know you only have to do it for one minute. It's thinking about time stretching out before you with no end in sight that really makes you hedge your bets.

But what really brought it home for me was one of my training buddy's performances in his last half-iron race.
We train at the same speed.
I train probably twice as many hours as he does.
My half-iron time was 5:50. His was 5:30. Our swims and bikes were pretty similar.
So what gives?
He isn't afraid to run on the run. That's what.

So I decided today, I would not be afraid. I would not think about mile 17 while I was still running mile 2. I would just think about mile 2.

So that's what I did. I kept my core tight and my footfalls quick. I thought about the present. I did not think about how I might feel two hours from now.

And guess what? I ran pretty darn quickly, and didn't have any problem continuing at that pace for the whole three hours.

At mile 14, which was the farthest I had gone so far this year, I clocked a 9-minute, 10 second mile. That made me grin. In fact, I even shouted, "Yeah, that's right" out loud to myself on the path.

Instead of the 16-17 miles I would have managed in the three hours at my old pace, I finished 19 miles.
19 miles!
You know, if I had kept going for another hour (which I felt like I could have...) that would be a 4-hour marathon! Are you kidding? My best marathon time is 4:30.

To be fair in comparing this to my run of two weeks ago, it was MUCH cooler this morning than during that run. And I had an excellent night's sleep. But still, it was a great day today.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up for a great Ironman run, but on the other hand....
I AM getting my hopes up for a great Ironman run.