Before recently, I never bought into the "runner's high." I could not understand how running could make someone feel so great. I mean, sure, I felt "good" because I was being healthy and was fast and fit, but running never really made me feel euphoric. Instead, it always made me feel tired and sore, and, as a result, cranky. All those runners who wrote in Runner's World about how great their latest trip was after laying down a few miles were damn dirty liars. There was no high. Just heaviness everywhere; legs, eyes, head... everywhere.
But then I had my run on Saturday. Saturday was just a usual walk/run (the more recent 5:00 walk, 10:00 minute version) on the treadmill at 10:00/mile; nothing special, nothing fancy. But WOW did it feel good! I felt awake, loose, comfortable and, true to high symptoms, elated. It was awesome! I felt like I could have kept running for miles and miles. And this wasn't just a one time deal; I got high from my run yesterday too even despite some soreness from the weekend's skiing. I have finally seen what the others have seen. I am now a believer, and worshiper, of the runner's high.
So why now? Why did it it take me 13 years of running to feel the runner's high when it takes some days? My theory lies in my recent training. When I was running competitively in high school and college, I was running at such a high intensity level, that any sort of "high" that might have come out with running was drowned out by shear exhaustion from working so hard all the time. Post-collegiately, until recently, I had been fixated on training at that high level despite not having the fitness that I kept ending up injured and frustrated. What's been different in this latest stretch of running since Christmas from other points in my career is that I have been very careful to not push the pace (10:00/mile has been my clip the entire time) or distance regardless of how I've felt. I've progressed super slow from running 5:00 at a time to 10:00 and have kept all my runs to the flat treadmill. For the past two weeks I have been doing 2 sets of 5 minutes of walking, 10 of running, bringing my total run time up to 20 minutes. It isn't until next week that I will try to run for 20:00 at once. Considering I am now coming from years essentially off from running, such a progression is absolutely vital to my success down the road.
Despite all this feeling good, I don't think I'm totally over my peroneal tendon injury. My shmarmy orthopedic thinks differently considering he gave me the all clear a couple weeks ago at an appointment but some residual tightness and irritation along the outside of my lower leg suggests to me that I need to be careful. In the past few weeks I've been quite good about stretching out my calves on my quasi-newly-purchased wedge which, according to everyone I've seen about this issue, will help. It certainly can't hurt anyway. I've also been icing religiously which has also been helping. I'm just a bit nervous for the day that I begin to add hills and roads back into my routine which is where the problem really presented itself. I guess we'll just cross that bridge when we get there. Til' then, I'll keep on enjoying getting buzzed off my slow trots on the treadmill.
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