running and thinking
Feb. 12th, 2003 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexr_rwxI was thinking about running while I was running tonight -- imagine that :)
I haven't raced in a while. Generally speaking, I screw up 5K races by going out really friskily, maybe with the front pack. My first mile is generally the quickest... then by the time I get to the second mile, I often forget that I was running s' fast, make the mistake of thinking that it'll be alright if I just back off for a bit because I'm hurting from the first mile. I let myself lose focus of what's happening, forget that I was planning on Going Really Fast the whole way, or at least think that a short term rest will be more gratifying than a long term good race. This doesn't happen every single time, but it often does.
I'm not a terribly good distance racer, yet. I think the trick to it is remaining conscious of what's going on. That's probably what running's about in general -- staying loose, not locking on to a rhythm (too slow -- you need to burst every so often, like... the entire last mile or so :) ), considering every step, watching where the foot goes down, and picking people to pick off instead of just trying to hold people off. That's something that applies to life in general, really -- a siege mentality, thinking "I just gotta hold out a little bit longer" ... doesn't allow for winning. If you're not chasing the people in front, you can't win the race. A lot of this is about physical conditioning, but most, I think, is just remembering what running fast feels like, keeping in mind that it's going to hurt, recognizing that fact, packaging it up into a little thought bubble of "hrm, this hurts. I recognize that this hurts, but frankly it doesn't really matter. I actually kind of like it. It means I'm alive and running. Hey! There's somebody in front of me! Let me go rectify that!" Very Zen.
Okie, off to Squeak. Squeaking is like that too.
I haven't raced in a while. Generally speaking, I screw up 5K races by going out really friskily, maybe with the front pack. My first mile is generally the quickest... then by the time I get to the second mile, I often forget that I was running s' fast, make the mistake of thinking that it'll be alright if I just back off for a bit because I'm hurting from the first mile. I let myself lose focus of what's happening, forget that I was planning on Going Really Fast the whole way, or at least think that a short term rest will be more gratifying than a long term good race. This doesn't happen every single time, but it often does.
I'm not a terribly good distance racer, yet. I think the trick to it is remaining conscious of what's going on. That's probably what running's about in general -- staying loose, not locking on to a rhythm (too slow -- you need to burst every so often, like... the entire last mile or so :) ), considering every step, watching where the foot goes down, and picking people to pick off instead of just trying to hold people off. That's something that applies to life in general, really -- a siege mentality, thinking "I just gotta hold out a little bit longer" ... doesn't allow for winning. If you're not chasing the people in front, you can't win the race. A lot of this is about physical conditioning, but most, I think, is just remembering what running fast feels like, keeping in mind that it's going to hurt, recognizing that fact, packaging it up into a little thought bubble of "hrm, this hurts. I recognize that this hurts, but frankly it doesn't really matter. I actually kind of like it. It means I'm alive and running. Hey! There's somebody in front of me! Let me go rectify that!" Very Zen.
Okie, off to Squeak. Squeaking is like that too.
