Wednesday, September 07, 2011

2011 Streak Day 226/365 (Aug 14th): Mind/body

2011 Streak Day 226/365 (Aug 14th): Run - 7.5 miles, Time - 1hr 14min, Weather - there had been rain but it was merely cloudy



Time for a longer run. If I am going to do a half marathon in September I have to try to extend my runs, even if it does feel hard work.

It was a sunday morning and so everything was fairly empty, which made the discovery of road-stripping plant hidden away in a quiet parking place, all by itself,  seem a little bit eerie. Not a sight I expected but I was amused by the big brother, little brother look.

As for the run - there was no breakthrough. I had hoped the regular running in France would have made a noticeable difference and this would feel like a breeze. But there can be a wide gap between hope and reality. It was not bad, I did not struggle too much but at the same time it didn’t feel any progress. Most disappointingly the last half mile was hard and I was happy when it was over.

P.S. When I said most of the last half mile I was referring to that strange phenomena of feeling progressively more tired until the last 100 meters when suddenly the sight of the finnish line lifts the spirits and your form picks up. Finding you were not as tired as you thought, when just a couple of minutes ago your body had told you it had nothing left, is common.  It is a small part of the evidence that supports the theory of the central governor but even without such a theoretical underpinning it shows how much a run is governed by the mind.

1 comment:

Adele said...

Ah, a planer, a rare sighting and a good one to see in action. These teams work at top speed, trying to resurface a road without too much disruption.There is usually a paver not too far away and what we call a 'wizzy digger' due to the high speed it approaches its job at.