Yesterday I had a great run. It started out great and got better as the distance wore on. Yesterday was the first day of my newest mileage increase from 3.5/6.0 to 3.85/6.6 and was an easy run of 3.85 miles. I was initially going to do it at my long run pace of 5.7 mph (~10:30 min/mile) but at the last moment decided to suck it up and do it at my easy run pace of 6.0 mph (10:00 min/mile). I also made an effort to run correctly on my left foot to prevent the burgeoning shin splints I dealt with on Saturday’s long run. I also decided to begin working on my focus. The last few weeks I haven’t been doing so well in this department. When you’re running in place at a gym, there’s a lot going on around you to distract you. There’s the other people working out around you and moving around, the gym music that plays at various levels depending on which gym employee turned it on, the music blasting from the various classes being taught at that particular time, the TV’s on the walls, and pretty girls walking around in little shorts and tank tops just to name the biggest distractions. It’s just as challenging as running outdoors in terms of helping you lose focus on the running and thus make the run seem much longer and more difficult than it is.
So, yesterday I decided to really work on maintaining focus on my running and my internal dialogue. It seemed to work! I concentrated on just listening to my iPod, getting into a comfortable running rhythm, and maintaining focus on a section of wall across the room in front of me. I did pretty well ignoring the various distractions, which probably helps explain the good run.
Anyway, there’s another 3.85 miles waiting for me at the gym tonight after work so we’ll see if I can replicate that great run from yesterday.
OK, so on to the subject of this post. I’ve heard many people describe running as a balance between physical ability/training and mental toughness and determination. After all, there’s no one around who’s going to drag you out the door to the gym or onto the road each day to get your miles in (unless you have a personal trainer, in which case the balance is artificial because you’re missing that mental determination). You and you alone can decide to run 4 miles or run 2 miles or not run at all. You can decide to run hard, run slow, etc. I agree with this sentiment, and would offer my own corollary to this thesis.
While running requires a balance between physicality and mentality, it is often the proportions of this balance or ratio that dictates our feelings towards the sport. And for a runner to get the most out of their sport, there is a specific ratio that must be reached. The various ratios (unique for each runner and for each individual’s goals for that particular run) can be referred to as the Efficient Frontier of Running. For those of you who aren’t finance geeks or don’t read finance books for fun (I know, it’s too bad I’m engaged, otherwise I’d have to keep the women off with a stick), the Efficient Frontier is an aspect of Modern Portolio Theory. The Efficient Frontier is a line on a graph the delineates the points at which a set of portfolios will gain the most return for the least risk. I think this would be better named the “Bang for Your Buck Ratio” but then again, I didn’t think this thing up so I guess I’ll go with the boring name instead.
This concept of the Efficient Frontier can be applied to running pretty easily. For a set of runners (novices just starting out to elites who are competing at the highest levels and every level in between) there is a set of points where one maximizes the returns (i.e. physical benefits and mental reward) with the least exposure to risk (i.e. injury, poor pacing, unable to get into rhythm, etc.). While in finance this frontier can be measured quantitatively, in running it is more of an instinctual thing. I can’t watch someone complete a 4-mile run in the rain through muddy trails with lots of hills and automatically say that it was a poor run. Maybe they like running in the rain, prefer trail running and had set out to do some hill training that day. In that case, it would most certainly be closer to an “efficient” run in the eyes of the runner.
Nonetheless, we all have runs that are good and runs that are bad. And we have them for various reasons. And I think they can all be related to the Efficient Frontier of running, even if that Frontier is more abstract than its financial predecessor.
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