Vanquishing the monster

Today's run was 2.5 times longer than the prior longest scheduled run in the program.  People call it the 20 minute monster because it's such a huge difference.  The mental block of running for 20 minutes straight is huge.  I pushed my second 8 minute run to ten minutes on Wednesday just so the 20 wouldn't seem quite so long.

My mind and body started a revolt as I left for the warm up walk.  My right calf hurt for no reason, my left knee felt stiff, my shirt didn't feel right.  By the time I I finished the warm up, which I must have walked faster than usual, those things had stopped.  I started running and felt fine chugging along at a good clip.  Then the 5 minute interval ended and my brain said, "It's only been 5 minutes, you'll never get through this."  I responded by slowing my pace a little instead of powering through.  To me it was more about time than distance or speed today.  My brain quieted down a bit with the slower pace and I plodded on.  I somehow managed to tune out the voice announcing the end of 8 minutes, but I heard the one for the halfway point.  I wasn't quite as far along my route as I expected to be by then, but I didn't really care.

The second half of the run was completely different.  My legs didn't hurt, my back was fine, my breathing wasn't labored.  I was actually enjoying the run.  At this point, all the instructions from the podcast for the other runs seemed to energize me.  Every time there was a pace change for the others, I knew I was that much closer.  I even managed to pick up the pace a bit when it said I only had 4 minutes left.

When 20 minutes hit, I kept running.  I had two things going through my head, one was to run until the 21 minute mark and the other was to run all the way to my start point.  When 21 hit, I stopped running.  Not sure what happened, my legs just suddenly went to walk mode.  I was actually too surprised by this to feel like I'd accomplished something.  It took about 50-100 yards of walking before I got enough conscious control back to tell my legs they were running another .15-.2 miles.  Luckily they listened, though I'm pretty sure for a second their they were planning to tell me to piss off.

Total running distance today was about 2.2 miles in 22ish minutes.  I really was hoping to run at least 10 minute miles if not a little faster, but like I said, the time was more important than the speed.  That and the fact that I still was able to add time to the end of the 20 minute run.  I got to my stop point and did a little mini victory lap.  Walked home with a spring in my step and a smile on my face.  I'm pretty sure anyone looking out the window as I walked by thought I was crazy.  If they only knew.