Personal Running vs Social Running

I had a funny phone conversation the other day that made me realize just how much my approach to running differs from those of my those of my friends who run “recreationally”. It went something like this.

“Hey, it’s getting kind of dark outside. I just wanted to make sure you’re still up to meeting up at the park for a run.”

I don’t care. It’s totally up to you.

“I don’t mind either. I’ve already gotten six miles worth of interval running earlier today so this will strictly be a hang-out run for me.”

Oh. Well, if you already ran today, we can skip it and do it sometime earlier on the weekend.

“Really? Okay. So you’re NOT running today? How about tomorrow or the next day?”

I’ll just wait ‘til we run again this weekend. It’s too boring to run by myself…

Hmmm. Can you all pick out which words were spoken by me and which were spoken by my female friend who is obviously not in marathon training? I know it’s a rhetorical question so I’m not going to answer that. But it got me to thinking, if I wasn’t “in training”, would my approach to running be the same as hers? Could I ever associate running strictly as a social event to be shared among friends? Does this difference reflect the fundamental dichotomy between recreational running and race training or is it simply a Venus and Mars thing?

I think these are all intriguing questions with very individual and personal answers. For me, when it comes down to it, I thinking running has always been and will always be an individual pursuit. This is not to say I don’t enjoy running with friends or with a big group. I’m all about using running to build stronger connections with people in all walks of life. What I’m saying is that, in my opinion, social running is an extension of personal running. If I’m not spending time alone out there on the road for training, for recreation, or even just for dissociation, then I don’t think I can enjoy the time I spend running with other people. Heaven forbid one day that I should restrict my running to only when called upon by others to run with them. I doubt I’ll even consider myself a runner when that day comes.

I don’t think there are right or wrong answers when it comes to these questions. After all, it seems there are more reasons why people run than there are runners. But I think they are all fun to think about and I’d be interested to hear what you all have to say in the comments.

As far as my training goes, like some of you guessed, I’ve been putting on too many fast miles lately. As a result, my marathon training has been thwarted somewhat by a kinda, sorta injury that I’m trying to R.I.C.E. through. I think I’ll be okay. I’m just warning you all that my weekly update will be rather lame this week. Just F.Y.I. Have a good weekend everyone!

Marathon Training Update - Week 2

Overheard as I was limping off the course after mile 16 of the NYRR Marathon Training Run yesterday: Only in marathoning would you ever hear someone say I ONLY ran 16 miles today!

Haha! If only the training run MC knew how much she was echoing my sentiments. But that was exactly how I felt right at that moment. Now, I will not go into why I was not able to complete the full 20 miles that I had set out to do. Suffice it to say that it was a combination of not enough food, not enough sleep, some physical ailments that I’ve been trying to ignore, and a whole list of details that wouldn’t have been factors had I finished my run. Pace leading was such an adventure that I think it overwhelmed me a little bit. Still, I had fun, and it was definitely the highlight of my week. In the future, I must warn myself to prepare adequate for the responsibility, even if I am led to believe that it’s no big deal by everyone else. Live and learn.

Week #2 (9/8-9/14)

What I Planned:

Tempo Run: 8 miles with 6 miles at 6:39 min/mi pace

Marathon Pace Run: 9 miles at 7:03 min/mi pace

Long Distance Run: 20 miles at long run pace

Recovery Run: 6 miles at recovery pace

Total week 2 distance: 42 miles

What I Ran:

Tempo Run: 8.1 total miles with 6.1 miles at 6:38 min/mi pace

Marathon Pace Run: 9.25 miles at 6:57 min/mi pace

Long Distance Run: 16.38 miles at 7:26 min/mi pace

Recovery Run: 8.0 miles at 7:28 min/mi pace

Total week 2 distance: 41.7 miles; avg pace – 7:15 min/mi

How I Ran:

The week started well, with a 8 mile tempo run for which I received a passing grade by the slimmest of margins. The MPR run a couple of days later was a little tougher with a right knee twinge that made the first mile slower than usual, which caused me to run faster in the later miles than I wanted. All of the fast miles caught up to me in the LSD as I had severe cramps at mile 12 and did all I could just to finish 16. Very disappointed that I wasn’t able to carry the intended distance since I had pace-leading responsibilities on this one. My frustration, er..I mean recovery run was anything but as I ran a bit father and a bit longer than I had planned. All in all, this was a fast and furious set of runs. I’ll need to handle one more similarly tough week before the training schedule eases up a bit.

The Show Goes On:Pace Leading for a Long Training Run

Thanks everyone for voicing your opinions on my latest dilemma. After mulling it over on a memorable 9.11 mile run this morning and pondering the alternatives in between patients at the clinic this afternoon, I’ve come to a simple resolution:

The Show Must Go On.

Yeap, that’s right! This running life of mine is way too short and this commentary/diary I keep way too precious to me to let the fears of what might happen prevent me from sharing my passion for both doctoring and running with the masses. Although I realize that I must, from now on, be a bit more discreet about divulging political affairs in the workplace, I still think it is not only worthwhile but important to me to use my clinical knowledge and experience to help improve the running experience (and by extension the health) of those around me, even if only in a virtual sense. As long as I don’t include any identifying information in the discussion of patients or talk about the hospital or those with whom I work with in a damaging or derogatory sort of way (which I’ve never been known to do anyways) I should be okay.

Whew, now that’s over, I can get back to the regularly scheduled running-related programming…

Was it a positive or negative experience? Any tips you’d like to share with a newbie? I’ve signed up to be pace leader for the 7:30 pace group at this weekend’s NYRR Long Training Run #2 and truth be told, I’m kind of nervous about it. I know it’s only 20 miles, incorporating 4 loops of Central Park, which is home turf for me basically, and it promises to be social, fun and relaxing (It better be, I’m giving up a chance to re-run my Best Race Ever from a year ago to participate in this thing!) I’m just worried that I’ll have trouble containing all the runners in my group from pulling the pace. I’m also concerned about the stopping and restarting at the end of every loop. I’m not one to usually stop in the middle of my long runs so it’s going to be interesting to see how my body will react to all of that. I suspect I’ll just have to trust Rover my Garmin, to keep me on pace for the entirety of the 20 mile run.

Since it’s my first time, all of it will be intriguing and brand new to me. For everyone’s sake, let’s hope I do a good job on Saturday. If you’re in town and around, drop by and say hi. I’ll be the pace leader with a bandana looking as if he doesn’t quite belong at the front of the pack. Yep, that’ll be me!