Why People Who Are Bad At Math Shouldn't Run
I just returned from a 5 mile tempo run. No, wait. That's untrue for two reasons.
- I've been back for well over an hour but have been eating Haagen-Dazs Mango Sorbet in the hopes that concentrated, flavored, frozen sugar water would cheer me up from a dismal run. But it sounds more hardcore if I insinuate I came in dripping from a run and sat straight down at the computer to write about it.
- I cheated and only did four miles of the 5 mile run.
I've been wondering--between gulps of sorbet--why I cheated. I've decided it's because I'm bad at math.
My scheduled run today was a one mile warm-up and then five miles at a 7:50 pace. I did the first half-mile at about an 8:30 pace and ended up with an 8 minute-per-mile pace at the end of the warm-up mile.
Not good. First of all, that's way too fast a warm-up pace for me. I should be closer to an 8:50. Second, as I grew tired in the tempo portion of my run, I began to rationalizing using that first fast mile as part of my tempo. But, hmm. That 8-minute pace would drag down my 7:50 average. Or would it? Yes, the overall 8-minute pace would drag down the average but wouldn't I have to have been running a 7:30 pace the second half of that warm-up mile for the total pace to average out at 8 minutes? Which means I could cut at least a half-mile of the tempo portion and NOT be considered a big fat cheater. PLUS, that 7:30 pace would mean I'm ahead of tempo. And so I don't overdo it, I should probably just give myself an extra half-mile, since I went out so fast and all. And I'll walk a really long cool-down to make up for it. Okay, going to throw up now.
That's pretty much my inner dialogue. At some point in there, I was assigning the value of "x" to hill gradients and trying to divide wind resistance by the value of Pi. The bottom line is that people who are bad at math shouldn't run. It's way to easy for us to start rationalizing short cuts based on faulty math theory... or poor addition skills.
I've got a 20 mile run this weekend. I better bring my calculator.
Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 3:58 PM | Dena Harris | 7 Comments | Email Article | Share via Digg | Print Article | tagged Boston marathon 2010, First training plan, Furman training, haagen-dazs, mango sorbet, tempo runs, training for Boston in Running
Reader Comments (7)
uhh...you...ok...WE need counseling...
That's why you should never run alone . . . so you can cheat off the person next to you.
Haagen-Dazs Mango is my favorite.
As often as I read your blog and talk to you about your running, I still have this imaginary Mystical Experience Cloud surrounding the idea of "my friend Dena is a runner." Which is to say the story you just shared sounds exactly like something I would pull if I ever took up your sport. Yet it's encouraging to be reminded that it's not always a piece of cake for you, either! In spite of your Faulty Math Shenanigans, you're still a great inspiration. So you know...
We all have bad runs - but often if I start out to fast I will count that as my tempo pace and get the 4-5 miles over with and use the extra mile at the end as part of the cool down.
I am just returning home from the FIRST running retreat. If you ever get a chance to do it; I highly recommend it. You learn a lot about yourself as a runner and areas how you can improve.
Rob -- I would LOVE to learn more about the retreat and what you learned. If you get a chance, please e-mail me at writeforyou @triad.rr.com.
I will send you a message with the link later on today.
Ha. This reminds me of when I am running a marathon and trying to determine my pace for the previous mile by subtracting my previous split from my current time. Which I cannot usually remember because I'm too tired. But even if I do remember, I have trouble subtracting. And then I remind myself how truly bored I must be if I am doing all these meaningless calculations just to get me through another 30 seconds of the race. And I'm actually good at math. So don't feel bad.