A Good Long Run (Resetting Post-Race)

I had a good long run this week, and it may be due to a phenomenon I wrote about a little in 2021 but even more back at the end of 2020.

I've posted about some crappy long runs lately, and I've just been feeling STUCK... like I could never get into the next gear, even though I thought I had another gear there!

Nearly 2 weeks ago was the Brian Kraft 5K, and I did about how I thought I would. I took it easy the rest of that week, and finally did a normal long run (with harder miles in the middle) a week after that race (so earlier this week). I started that run with heavy legs even though I didn't know why because I did no endurance workout the day before, I did a shorter/easier bike ride 2 days before, a run with just a little effort 3 days before, so my last REAL effort was a harder bike ride FOUR days before this run... I should have been fresh. But I powered through the heavy legs and ended up posting some decent splits. Here are my half-mile splits run harder in the middle of an 11.3 mile run:

3:14, 3:15, 3:08, 3:08, 3:03, 3:05, 3:06, 3:03, 3:09, 3:05, 3:01, 3:00

= 37:23 (6:13.83 / mile)

Mile splits of 6:30, 6:16, 6:09, 6:10, 6:15, and 6:01

That was my first time dropping below 6:20 pace for those "hard" miles in 4 weeks, and my fastest "hard" miles since running 6:12 pace in mid-February! That was 15 weeks ago... about 3.5 months of running slower than what I ran earlier this week! (Going back before that OK run 4 weeks ago, most of my "pace miles" were in the upper 6:teens and sometimes in the 6:20s.)

Again, as I posted about in 2021 and spelled out more back at the end of 2020, I think racing hard "resets" something in my body and mind. I don't know what percentage is PHYSICAL and what percentage is MENTAL, but it's some of BOTH. So that 5K last week helped to reset things, and then I had my fastest long run in 15 weeks.

Splits 5 - 17 were my faster miles. (Half mile splits.)


Heart rate shows that I ran harder from mile 2.5 to mile 8.5.

This phenomenon doesn't always happen, as here's a post from 2022 that shows me getting SLOWER during the first 2 long runs after a hard race. But it happens more often than it doesn't, and hopefully it's set me on a better track for my training.