i2runner

Second Wind

Sorry for not updating my blogs lately, I’ve been a very busy at work and training for the Marathon. Well also sometimes it’s hard to blog a run when making one actually takes a longer time than doing the real running. However there have been a lot of stories I wanna to tell and ideas/experience I wanna share, but I don’t know where to begin or how to start. Now I figured I think I should start with my long run this morning since the experience is still fresh in my mind.

This morning’s run was a scheduled 19 Mile (30.571kms) for me. So yesterday when Beth asked me what I wanted to eat, I told her I wanted to carbo-load, so she cooked spaghetti for me. It was so delicious since she cooked it with love. So I ate spaghetti all day long at her house. By the way, Spaghetti is one of carbohydrate-rich foods that have very low glycemic index, even the white enriched ones. No wonder this is perfect for pre-Marathon or pre-long runs. Before I ran this morning, I didn’t eat anything but drank a cup of instant coffee to keep me awake.

When I left my house, I started running at exactly 4:57AM. I figured if I’m gonna run for 19miles, I could end up my running with the sun way up high, so I ran earlier than what I normally did. The first 4miles was very hard to run, even though it was still dark, it was very humid and very hot, I was already very sweaty at 3miles. The RW-UK Garmin marathon program I’ve downloaded was for a 3:45 marathon (I know it’s fast, I don’t believe I could actually run that, but it should prepare me for a 3:59marathon). The program tells me that I should run my long runs at 9:27 to 9:47/mile pace, or 5:52 to 6:05/km pace. In the beginning of my program, this was actually very hard for me, but as the weeks pass by, my body seems to adapt and it’s now normal for me. But today I felt good that the first 10miles were actually faster than 9:27!!!

My first 10mile split in Statute:

My first 10mile split in Metric:

After 9miles I took a water, or shall I say Gatorade break and drank 500mL of it. I also ate a big size banana. During my 10th mile I actually felt some stomach cramps, probably due to the big size banana that had a lot of fibers in it. Then at the start of mile 11, something strange and wonderful happened. I felt the “SECOND WIND”. I was no longer tired and I felt so wonderful that I found myself actually singing songs. Meaning, my breathing was so easy. I remembered in the video “Spirit of the Marathon”, that if you find yourself singing a song, you may want to push your pace a little faster. So I did, and my mile splits were dropping but I still felt so easy. My Garmin kept on beeping and saying “TOO FAST” and “SLOW DOWN”. It kept annoying me so I disabled the beeping alarm and continued to run faster. Then I saw my pace consistently drop below 9minute/mile that I couldn’t believe it. What I really couldn’t believe is the nice euphoric feeling I had when I was running it. It felt so relaxing that I could do it all day long. 10miles felt like I’ve only ran a mile. So instead of running only 19miles, I’ve decided to make it a nicer rounded number 20miles, the minimum requirement to finish a marathon.

My 11-20mile splits in Statute:

My 11-20mile splits in Metric:

In the end, my average pace for the 20mile run was 9:08/mile or 5:40/km. If I could sustain this for the next 6.2miles, I could have a 3:59 marathon. So, in effect I’ve ran a 20mile @ marathon goal pace. I believe this is not advisable, most marathon goal pace in training are usually run at shorter distances like 10miles.
In comparison, my last 20mile run was only 10:18/mile, more than a minute/mile slower. But this was 3months ago.

I remember “Second Wind” was quite popular in Runners’ World magazine in the 90’s. But now I can’t find any article about it anymore. It’s probably because didn’t have much scientific evidence to support its claims; runners say they experience this very rarely, so this could explain why it’s not easy to detect or be measured by sports scientists. I searched wikipedia, it describes it as your body being able to find the right balance of oxygen consumption to counteract lactic acid accumulation.

Today I think I have experienced this “Second Wind”. But If I could repeat this pace again next week for another 20mile run, then I’m probably wrong, and this could just “the training effect”. And if so, I think it would be an even more beautiful phenomena.