In my OCS TT race report, I described how Scott Dewire was in such pain at the end of the race he could barely dismount his bike. I had an email conversation with him about his ability to dig deep during races. Scott wrote:

Sometimes I do think there must be a level of discomfort that I am willing to accept (only when racing) that others of equivalent physical abilities are not.
…
the body is always capable of more than the brain thinks it is, and if you can teach your brain to let go of its protectiveness over your body, you can reach into a deeper well of effort than ever before.

I have read about “Breakthrough Workouts” that teach your brain to “let go”. I even planned such a workout two years ago. But this phenomenon eluded me, so I discarded it in favor of the Kaizen philosophy of continuous small improvements.

I still believe mostly in Kaizen; however, I almost had a Breakthrough workout today…

In an attempt to get in a more aerodynamic position on my bike, I moved my handlebars down by 1/2 inch. It didn’t feel like much of a difference, until about 10 minutes into my ride. My butt hurt. My knees hurt. I continued on my normal long bike (~50 miles), at an easy pace. By the end of the ride, pretty much everything hurt! I will write more about THAT later. This post is about my run the next day…

I always do my long run of 9.2 hilly miles the day after my long 50 mile hilly bike. This is good training for running on tired legs. Usually, my legs feel okay the day after my long bike. Today, they felt like lead. I struggled for the first 3 miles at a slow slogging pace. I arrived at the 3 mile mark 5 minutes “behind schedule”.

I slogged on for two more miles. I arrived at the corner of Pinehurst and MLK Jr Blvd about 7 minutes behind schedule. Even when “Walk this Way” came on my mp3 player, I couldn’t muster up the will to go faster. I began to accept that I can’t run on dead legs. I thought about my poor run split at last year’s Duke Half: “No wonder I ran so slow – my legs were dead!” I began to accept that I will never truly conquer the Duke 1/2 beast because the best I can do is slog on tired legs.

NO – I DO NOT ACCEPT THAT!

I told my brain to SHUT UP! I began to pick up my pace by focusing on faster cadence, lifting my feet quickly, and relaxing muscles not used.

I thought “wouldn’t it be great if I could turn things around and make this a breakthrough workout”? What if I could make this run a PR of less than 1:40 after slogging through the first 5 miles?

While I can’t classify this as a breakthrough workout, nor did I make it a PR, it was a VERY GOOD finish. I kept up a decent pace the rest of the run. I got to the bottom of the hellacious hill called Kenmore Rd at 1:25. The best time I have ever run from Kenmore to my personal “finish line” at Margaret Ann’s mailbox is 18 minutes.

I pushed hard up that hill. I kept pushing the rest of the time. I turned off my music and chanted “Shut up Brain” inside my head. When I checked my stopwatch and realized that I wasn’t going to make the 1:40 PR mark, I didn’t let it get me down. I still ran hard. I kept saying “Shut Up Brain” so I could keep up my hard effort no matter what.

I got to Margaret Ann’s mailbox (the end) at 1:43. So, while it wasn’t a PR for the entire run, I did match my all time best of 18 minutes for that last part of the run. AND, I made up 4 out of the 7 minutes lost in the first five miles. A GOOD FINISH! (Avg HR = 141).

Here’s the profile of Kenmore Rd, which I generated from Hey Whats That Path