A State of Running Nirvana

Today’s workout plan called for a 1 hour bike followed by 30 minute run. My plan was to do three hard repeats up the first half of Mt. Sinai Road (hilly), taking the way back down easy. On the third repeat, I would keep riding ‘all out’ the rest of the way back home, then do an ‘all out’ run. A hard brick set, to be sure!

I set my mp3 player to play all Depeche Mode songs, hoping to hear “A Pain that I am Used To” as I did during my last brick workout. It never did play – but that’s okay, because two other songs from their “Playing the Angel” CD inspired me to find a state of running nirvana. Read on…

I was grinding up the first repeat of Mt. Sinai just thinking mostly about working hard, forgetting about using the “Pain that I am Used to” mental strategy to help me push to the next level. Then this song came on:

Suffer Well

I just hang on
Suffer well
Sometimes it’s hard
It’s hard to tell

Those words got me thinking about suffering and pushing hard to break through to the next level – and how it’s hard to tell how hard to push. I have often visualized a line representing my endurance, speed, strength, skill, etc. I push up against this invisible line in hopes of nudging that line a little bit forward. I push hard enough to nudge this line, but not so hard as to hurt myself. There’s always a tiny bit of holding back, or a feeling that I just can’t go harder.

I rode along thinking about this imaginary line, and how to get past it. Somewhere near the top of the hill during the last repeat, this song came on:

Precious

Things get damaged
Things get broken
…
There was so little left to give

These lyrics truly inspired a moment of clarity in my mind. What is holding me back from pushing past this invisible line and breaking through it? I am afraid my body will break. I think I don’t have anything left to give!

Breakthrough – that sounds so scary, so painful, so dangerous. What if this line just simply didn’t exist? If there was no line, nothing will have to BREAK!

So, the rest of the bike ride, I imagined a stretch of yellow police tape – you know, the kind that they string across crime scenes: “CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS”. I imagined this tape was the line that is holding me back from going harder and faster. I imagined erasing that line. For, if that line no longer exists, there is no line to break through, and there is nothing holding me back.

By the time I got off the bike and started running, that line was completely gone. Letting go of that mental image released me. I was running fast. I was running with good form – without having to think hard about every single movement. It didn’t even feel hard. I was in a state of running nirvana. I’ve only ever briefly found that place before, but could never hold onto it for very long.

I checked my stopwatch at the 1/2 mile mark, and it was 4:04. I was almost running 8 minute miles. My heart rate was only 155-160! At the 1 mile mark, I was at 8:07. Still, close to 8 minute miles, and I felt completely relaxed. This was phenomenal. At White Lake, I was running this same pace, yet it felt REALLY HARD! I thought about pushing to get my heart rate up into the 170’s, as that’s where I should be for an ‘all out’ effort. But I was enjoying this state of relaxed speed too much, that I decided to hold onto it.

At the base of the hill at Kenmore Road, my time was 21:something. The best I’ve gone from that point to the end, is 18 minutes. The best I’ve ever done this entire 4.5 mile HILLY run is 40:15. I did the math in my head 21+18 = 39. I can make this run a PR! I kept running Cheetah-fast. I felt like I could keep this pace up forever!

Alas…I lost my grasp of “nirvana” at about the 4 mile mark. The last 1/2 mile was more like my normal running form – work hard, push push, good posture, fast feet, lift, lift.

I finished the run in 38:07 – a full two minutes faster than ever before. It was pure joy, this place I call running nirvana – I hope I can find my way there again!

PS…in case you live around here. Before this workout I mapped out Mt Sinai and compared it to OTM and Duke 1/2 elevations. Here it is…(click to enlarge)