Going All in on Running - And Marriage

"Sometime in the past couple of months, I saw a post by Allie Ostrander on Instagram. Allie is a well-known runner who represents Oiselle on the track, road, and trail, and in her post, she pointed out that you can run a race and a workout at the same pace, and yet the two efforts can feel remarkably different. One feels grueling, the other feels like flow state."

"I have a few ideas as to why this happens: Races are often preceded by a taper, while workouts are usually done in the thick of hard training; training is often done at a higher altitude than the race; during a race, there might be a strong, competitive pack to run with or a pacer to follow instead of having to run alone. All of these things can add up, making race day feel a bit easier than expected."

"I drove around town collecting tools: chisels, sandpaper, a wood burner, and an exacto knife. I retrieved several pieces of wood from the trees by the A-frame house that Jess and I have been building and stashed them away in my bus. Then, when I was alone, often in the morning or late at night, I'd pull out my tools and get to work."

Runners often experience that identical paces feel very different between workouts and races, with workouts feeling grueling and races sometimes feeling like flow. Contributing factors include pre-race tapering versus heavy training load, altitude differences between training and race venues, and the presence of pacers or competitive packs on race day. Psychological commitment and being 'all in' on race day also influence perceived effort. A parallel engagement appears in a personal wood-carving project, with focused, solitary work assembling tools and crafting small wooden coins, illustrating how concentrated commitment changes the experience of effort.

Read at iRunFar