Opportunities for growth
There are few opportunities to experience pain and growth as much as pushing yourself to your previously conceived limits for an extended amount of time. When your body and even your mind screams at you to slow down, a point at which your mind thinks it is time for the natural instincts for survival kick in. Yet you have to will yourself to keep pushing, sometimes to just beyond that point, to experience growth.
Most people think the opportunities to get to that point are few and far in between, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. All it takes is for you to push yourself. Last weekend, I had the chance to do just that. Last Saturday I participated in the LA Kings Hydrocephalus Association Fundraiser 10K run (6.2 mile). I actually don’t race often, and this was only my second organized running only race (after a half marathon back in 2015). Liz signed us both up, it was for a great cause, and I was able to get a great workout in, a great way to spend a Saturday morning!
I hadn’t specifically trained for a 10K footrace, but I decided it would be a good chance to see where my baseline level of fitness really was and what adjustments I could make. My goals were relatively simple: 1) set a new PR (not hard as I hadn’t ran a 10K before); 2) grow stronger (improve pace) as the race dragged on; and 3) work my aggressive tracking and pass as many racers as I could while not get passed (always a good time).
As for goal 1, I ended up averaging a 6:10min/mile pace for a total time of 38:01. Not bad for an off-season triathlete. As for goal 2, I was successful for the first three miles (going sub 6 during mile 3) but ended up redlining the engine a bit too far. I ran right up to my threshold toward the halfway point of the race. I slowed down over miles 4 and 5 and wasn’t able to regain the initial pace until the final ½ mile. Though my body begged for my mind to tell my brain to shut it down and walk the rest of the race, I held strong and kept turning over the stride.
A key component of a fast run time is a strong and consistent stride. A great metric to measure the quality and consistency of the stride is to look at stride length and stride cadence. My stride length (displayed in meters above) was fairly consistent, generally falling within a 1.4 to 1.6m envelope. I have never done a stride length analysis to see what my optimum stride length would be, but I generally adapt a stride that feels comfortable and that i am confident will result in the most efficient energy output possible. Similarly, I tried to keep my stride cadence and turnover high (>270spm), averaging around 275spm (strides per minute)
Lastly, goal 3 was a fun one. I started roughly at the back of the front pack of runners (with roughly 50 or so runners in front), and rapidly made my way up to the first 20 or so fastest racers. From there it was a fight to catch and pass as many as I could. Race results aren’t posted yet so not sure where in the field I finished, though it was somewhere between first place male (sub 32 minute) and first place female. (sub 40 minute).
Overall, it was a great learning and growing opportunity. There is something special about pushing yourself to your threshold only to discover you can keep going. The more you take the opportunity to do just that, the more growth you will experience and the more resilient you will become.
