Ultra running and the Power of Slow

So – I’ve been doing some reflecting on lessons learned since I started ultra training almost a year ago.  Prior to starting to train for my first ultra-marathon, I’d say that I probably ran anywhere from 18-30 hours a week, and that includes times when I was training for either a marathon or an Ironman.  Generally I was doing about 3 runs a week.   I almost NEVER ran 2 days in a row, and I certainly never ran the day after a “long run”.  Long runs were generally not more than 1 every 2 weeks, and they maxed out at 18 miles, with the exception of Ironman training year, where I had 3 weeks in a row with runs going from 18 to 19 to 20.  Most importantly in terms of where I was mentally, I had this idea in my head that every run I did really had to be as fast as I could do it.  Not necessarily race fast, but zippy nonetheless.  I judged the quality of my runs based on how fast I was able to do them.  Even the long runs, I tried to maintain an aggressive pace that was certainly slower than my 10K pace, but was something like I’d hope to achieve in a marathon. 

Enter ultra training and “back to backs”. 

For my first 50-miler ultra, I followed a plan I found in Runner’s World online which essentially called for back to back long runs pretty much every weekend.  There would be usually a 3 week build period, and then a weekend where I would back off on the distance but still go longer than the weekday runs.  My first back to back of any significance (mentally) was the one where I was slated to run 20 miles on Saturday followed by 12 on Sunday.  The thought of this was pretty mind boggling to me.

At that point in time, 20 was a LONG run.  And long runs required (in my mind) a subsequent day of rest.  I really couldn’t fathom of how I was going to do 12 miles the day after 20. 

I woke up that Sunday morning feeling apprehensive, and still a bit stiff and achy from the run the day before.  Perhaps the only thing that made this run possible in my head was that I was going to be doing half of it with company.  I’m used to almost all of my runs being solo, so company is a huge motivator.  I was scheduled to meet my cousin Rebecca at the halfway point of my 12-miler – so pick her up after 6.

With a “this is impossible” clanging around in my head, I set out from my house.  I started shuffling along at what felt like a snail’s pace.  I got about a half mile in and realized that 1) I wasn’t (really) hurting, and 2) I was running.  Slow – but I was running.  Kept shuffling along and hit a hill.  Slowed down.  Got to a mile.  Looked at my Garmin and realized that at least for this first post-20 miler mile, my “slow” pace was less than a minute per mile slower than my aggressive pace.  And it sure as hell felt a whole lot more do-able.  Attacked mile 2.  And actually sped up a little.  And mile 3.  And, well, it felt fine.  I couldn’t go fast – I knew that wasn’t in me.  But I didn’t have to.  I just had to go.  And I did.

I met Rebecca at the halfway point where it had started to rain.  I didn’t care – I was having an epiphany.  The key to back-to-back day 2 was to go slow. 

Rebecca and I ran 3 miles out from town, and 3 miles back in what turned into pouring rain.  When we hit mile 11, I said “let’s try to do the last mile just a little bit faster”.  So we picked it up probably by about 30 seconds per mile, and pulled off a 10 minute mile for the last one.  We met the rest of our family at Stagecoach Coffee in town to get on with our family weekend and enjoy a post run breakfast.   My overall pace for that run was about 45 seconds slower per mile than my aggressive pace – which essentially meant a 12 mile run completed in 2 hours and 6 minutes rather than 1 hour and 57 minutes.  And – after the 12 mile slow run, my body felt BETTER than it had before the run.  And continued to feel better for the rest of the day. 

During the remainder of my 50-miler training, I saw my pace get what seemed to be slower and slower.  In retrospect I guess it didn’t slow down THAT much more as my slowest pace I believe was only ever 10:45, but it felt like it.  And the lesson for me was, getting to be ok with that mentally.  Because that 12 mile run wasn’t my only epiphany.  The back to backs got longer and longer – from 20/12 to 20/18 to 23/20 to (OMG!)  23/28.  And on so many weeks, I’d find myself hitting mile 18, 19, 20 of the second day – and still feeling OK – as long as I hadn’t tried to push the pace.  On the other hand, any runs where I started feeling bad about “going slow” where I tried to get more aggressive about my pace early into the run ended up with me feeling more tired and burned out by the end.  There’s a lesson in here somewhere.

So – I did the training, did my 50.  Had accepted the fact that I was slower.

And then, discovered something.

I was getting faster again. 

???

So after my 50 miler, I started throwing back in a little bit of speed work.  I only did it once a week and generally only on my short run.  And the rest of the runs I just ran to build my base.  And I discovered that with a really solid base of about 50 miles a week behind me, when I WANTED to go fast, I could push the pace stronger than I could before my 50.  I pulled off a marathon 6 weeks after CanLakes 50 that was not a PR, but was my second best time ever.  And that was coming off of an injury 2 weeks after my 50.

So now – out of my 5 runs a week, 4 of them I try to do at whatever pace my body is comfortable with that day.  1 day a week I push it.  Sometimes I just push a little bit – sometimes I push a lot.   And the end result?  I did a 22 miler last Saturday and for the rest of the day pretty much felt like I used to feel after running 6.  I’m a stronger, steadier runner with fewer  issues than I used to have with plantar fasciitis, IT Band issue, hip imbalances and other problems I used to experience when every run had to be as fast as I could do it.  And, I think I’m a bit faster too…