A few weeks ago I read one of Matt Fitzgerald's posts on anger and running. “Anger is an endurance athlete’s best friend in a race. Nothing enables you to master the suffering of a race like boiling rage", he notes, while citing an article published in the Triathlete magazine. Go here to read Matt's post if you are interested (and you should be, it's great). Although I did like the post, I did not make much of it at the moment. I have certainly experienced the empowerment that can come along with feeling angry, but I had never run while angry..until today.
I did my speedework again at lunch, 9 miler with 4 miles of speed. I had longer intervals today, including a mile and a 2 miler, and was no particularly excited about the run. My legs moved slowly during warm up, but eventually they started to cooperate. The mile went fine. During the 2 miler, I had a hard time maintaining focus. Eight times around the track with no break is tough on the mind (particularly after having gone 4 times around 1 min earlier). After 2 laps, the cheerleading team who was practicing on the soccer field in the middle of the track, started to do a lap around the track. They took over ALL lanes, and they were going at a leisurely pace. Hm. I had to yell to pass them, during my 3rd lap, and my pace slowed down a bit during the process. They stopped after a lap, and proceeded to sit in the middle of the track, blocking all lanes. As I approached them again, I could not believe that they were not moving out of my way. They were facing me, looking at me (probably saying, who is that crazy woman running more than one lap in this weather). With 100 meters to go I started yelling at them to move. They did, but oh so slowly, and my pace slowed down again as I tried to pass them. Then something happened. I got really angry. I picked up the pace and it was easy. It was like I got an adrenaline rush, and my legs got another gear. I regained my focus, and ended up running the 2 mile interval faster than planned, with minimal discomfort. The anger carried me through the last 2 800 m intervals. Pretty amazing. Now I have to figure out how to get some anger going during the last miles of my marathon...
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9 miles @ 7:38 with 1mile @6:40, 2 miles @6:43, 800m @6:22, 800m @ 6:20.
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17 comments:
I find most people you see at a track are clueless. No common sense at all. I had the same problem on my lunch time workouts in Brookline with all the people walking their dogs on the track. Even though there is a very large soccer field next to the track they preferred to let the dogs run unleased on the track. Almost tripped over them several times but the onwers never said or did a think to keep their dogs in check. Used to tick me off too! All I can say is do the best you can under the circumstances. At least you have a track nearby. Stay cool!
Isn't it funny how oblivious some people can be? Especially younger people! Nice work on the run!!
Wow - finally a time where my anger can be channeled for the positive. I look forward to reading that article. Sounds like it really worked for you. Your mile/2mile intervals were smoking! I can't belive how ignorant those girls were. C'mon.
I don't do my speeedwork on a track. I have a mile loop mapped out (along with the other shorter intervals marked) and it has really helped me mentally. I couldn't imagine doing more than 4 laps around the track. That's tough. Like swimming, I would probably loose track.
Great job!!
I play chicken with people all the time. Mostly high school kids who are smoking and think they are too cool to not walk 4 abreast everywhere.
That would have been really annoying to run, at least you kept at it and look what happened? You killed the workout! Great job!!
Great story. I completed the same workout last week on my local track (on the other side of the world in Melbourne, Australia).
My wonderful (?) track is only "lit" for about 30m on the home straight with the rest of it pitch black here at night when I am running most of my laps.
I have dog trouble here too, but it is exacerbated by the fact that I cannot see the buggers as they come sprinting out of the dark at me!
What I wouldn't give to replace the pooches for some unruly cheerleaders!
Cheers, PB
That is some FAST running!!! I can just picture those cheerleaders. I probably would have stopped my workout and explained to them that they needed to get the FUCK OFF THE TRACK.
Argh.
I am a little prejudiced against cheerleaders, I'm afraid... :) haha!
Anyway, did you see that Matt F. took down his blog????? So sad... I think he's still at this site... konaorbust.competitor.com
Great workout! It's funny how clueless people can be, and it's not just on the track. Sometimes I'm carrying Kaylee through the mall, and I've had people just walk right into me. It's crazy!
Hmmm, finding the anger. I don't usually get angry during a race, but if I do it's with myself. I was a bit angry with myself on Sunday during the last 5 miles. It helps on days when I'm having trouble. On good days though, there's just no anger to be had (at least for me).
well done, the 2 miles on the track is difficult, much more difficult that on the road. high school kids taking the entire track sucks, but you did an excellent job taking a negative and using it to your advantage.
I seriously hate how clueless people are at the track . . . I mean, at my track, there are signs EVERYWHERE that give very clear rules, and nobody bothers to follow them. It's so frustrating.
Great job channeling the anger, though! Those are some seriously speedy times!
Gosh, that is seriously frustrating.
i hate idiots at the track. hello! common sense to move to the outside when you are moving slower. well, it ought to be anyway. i know people don't do that while driving so why would they do it at the track?
nice job on the intervals otherwise!
I actually went to the link, but could not find the post. But that is OK because I have heard about and experienced how it feels to run angry. I'll admit that I don't like to run that way, but it has gotten me through a couple of tough spots in races. I get an adrenaline boost that seems to make the pain just a little less. But I also think it tires me out soon after, so I try to use it late in races.
Great split times on the speedwork! I am interested to know if you usually include 2 milers at speed as that is a really long way. Even my mile repeats really hurt and that is about all I can do.
Take care and best of luck with your training.
Bill, Matt's post in on August 11. You need to scroll down on a bit on his blog.
FIRTS marathon training plan has me do one 2 miler of speed during the marathon training. The pace per mile for this repeats is supposed to be slower than the pace per mile for a mile repeats, 1200m, etc. Totally doable, thus!
Ana-maria
I forgot to ask you, what does PMP mean for the first program? I can't seem to find it and I'm supposed to do 10M tomorrow.
Thanks,
Spike
nice job!! way to use the adrenaline to power your intervals :) i wish i could love the track like you do!
Spike, PMP is planned marathon pace.
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