Breakthroughs

I believe that one of the main reasons so many people enjoy running is the potential for breakthroughs. I believe I've written a post on this sometime in the past, but I cannot quite remember, so at the risk of repeating myself, I am writing one now.

In my experience, there are very few sports other than running that contain the possibility for such massive breakthroughs. Normally in my case it has to do more with overcoming some mental hurdle than a physical breakthrough. You are running along one day, out for a mid-distance, easy workout, and rather than turning around, or taking the left fork, you keep going, or take the right one.

Before you know it, you're much farther out from your house than you ever intended. In fact, you're pretty sure that this is turning into the longest run you've done so far this training cycle, or even in your life. And yet, somehow, your body feels fine. Better than fine. Your body starts telling you "I can go like this for as long as you want me to." And best of all, you believe it.

These are by far my favorite runs. And naturally, I had one this morning. Having changed from "real" running shoes over to the fivefingers, I have necessarily reduced my training by quite a bit. Quite simply, my feet and calves were not any where near strong or conditioned enough to train seriously in the minimal coverings yet. This was expected, and I knew to deal with it. And my training was not going particularly well in any case, so I made the leap.

Today, I ran twice as far in my Sprints as I ever have before. I just kept going at what I thought was the end of my favorite trail around here, and it felt fantastic. And then, at the end of my run, I found a detour: there was a construction crew out laying tar on the asphalt outside my apartment building, so I was force to run an extra half mile on top of the run I'd already completed.

It felt fantastic!

This ties in with the theories expounded upon in the latest running book I am reading. The book is called simply "Run," by Matt Fitzgerald. The subtitle calls it "The mind-body method of running by feel," and that says it all. Rather than rigidly following a particular training plan, you listen to what your body is telling you, via your brain, and tailor your workouts accordingly. That's not to say that you don't have a plan, but rather you leave yourself open to adapting it according to what works best for your body.

A particular theme in this book is listening to your feelings of confidence. Use whatever training techniques and workouts that make you the most confident in your ability to race well. There's a reason that certain workouts make you feel more confident, and that is because they are in fact doing the most for your body.

But confidence in itself is important as well. Up until today, I was not feeling very confident in my fivefinger shoes. But I ran both longer and on a much rougher trail today than I have up until this point, and suddenly I feel as though these foot gloves might just work for me, and more than that, might just be fantastic!

That is not to say that I won't be taking tomorrow easy.

Now, on to the important business of the day. I have not had much luck with my computer ever since our cat spilled water all over it one night. At the moment, it seems to be working two out of three days, but I'm worried that ratio might be falling. So I am off now to try it again and see whether I can get it to work today. If not, I may be forced to buy a new one.