Winter Means Always Running at Night*

Last week I decided I was going to do a 12M long run at some point over the weekend. Thank you ambitious self, I love when you set goals for me. Saturday morning my alarm went off early. I turned it off and went back to sleep.

Sunday morning was a reoccurrence of Saturday morning and no running occurred. Thank you slacker self for destroying the goals ambitious self sets, breaking a little more of his esteem each time.

But, because it is what they do, that stupid unwanted and unanswered long run hung around like a ghost all day Sunday. Just jawing at me. “You gonna get out there and run?”

“No.” I reply.

“You’re lazy, and you suck at Mario Kart.” It says.

“I’m not even training for anything right now so back off. Stupid long run.”

I’m proud to say that, despite its persistence, I managed to not run all weekend. But long runs are not so easily defeated. So, around 7pm last night, after finishing yoga, I began my usual 3M easy run; which started out a little fast for an ‘easy’ run and turned into 4M before I knew it.

Worse, I was running an out/back route, so that 4M was undoubtedly going to be an 8M run. And yet, I kept going until I surpassed the 6M mark.

Because it gets dark at 2pm these days, basically all runs are ‘night’ runs, even if it is only 8pm. And, to add upon my already oversized pile of stupid ideas building avalanche-like momentum, I was running the hilliest route I know. A combination of two hill routes I would never run together. Stupid Spike.

All of this brings me to the point of this post, or the crescendo if you will. I once read an article in Runners World wherein a runner claimed running hills at night is easier because you can’t see the top, and therefore you just keep running.

That’s bullsh#t. In my opinion. Stupid Monday night long run.



*That is, unless you are Nitmos and get to ‘work’ at home and can enjoy long lunches that involve quality runs.

Know Your Enemy*

In the midst of winter, as cold strong winds pushed through dark Michigan nights, there were times I slightly resented not being able to begin my workouts until 8:30pm. But working with Phillip and seeing the progress he has made in vastly improving his reading ability makes it all worth the late night runs. Plus, like most things time can change your perspective. Now, when I begin my workouts at 8:30pm the sun is just setting and weather is cool with slight winds. As chronicled previously, this is my favorite weather to run in.

If my enemy is heat, than I’ll avoid if I can. And my promise to be accountable to Phillip helps me avoid the heat. It’s a win-win. However, sadly, my last week before taper is also my last week with Phillip, and I’ll miss him more than I’ll miss the high mileage. The program doesn’t typically allow carry-over from student to tutor, but I’ve already began to lobby for an exception.

Alas, as I begin to crest the summit of my Bayshore training and prepare to descend into tapper madness, I begin to wax poetically. So, to the numbers. Last night was 5M, splits went 6:11, 6:23, 6:24, 6:34, 6:19 for a 6:22/M average.

*Although I’m not a huge Green Day fan, their latest song was one of two stuck in my head last night in my sans iPod run. The other was the Black Eyed Pees Boom Boom Boom.

Running Fast at Night

Running fast automatically means you are outside of your running comfort zone. Going outside of your comfort zone at races or at other times is a good thing; it challenges us as runners and lets us know where we can improve.

As part of my marathon training, I have incorporated mile repeats. Last night included a ½ mile warm-up, then 3 mile repeats at 10K pace, or 6:30/M.

Now the thing about running at night, and especially running fast at night, is that it is a total mind screw. Everything, I mean everything, seems further away. So my run-½-mile-then-turn-around at street light and head back seemed more like “I can’t believe how far away that light is, I’ve been running forever, this route must be longer than a ½ mile, everything is black except for the street light a mile away and my headlight, how fast am I actually going?”

So, you can only imagine how running outside of your comfort zone is jacked up exponentially by running at night. Not to mention that my light wouldn’t stay at my desired 45-degree angle while running fast, but insisted on facing straight down. Which caused a somewhat cool but eerie effect of having my breath, strangely illuminated by my running light, vaporize in front of me. I am not looking forward to doing the same thing, plus one mile repeat, next week.

Splits: 6:13, 6:20; 6:23. Apparently I was going a wee bit fast my first one.