Just Making My Rounds

I tell a student that the most important class you can take is technique... You have to learn the process. You learn it through endless repetition until it belongs to you.-- Jaques Pepin

I went for a six mile run today. Since I moved to Atlanta I haven't done many six mile runs. I used to do a six almost every day back in New Jersey. I had done it so many times that three mile runs felt like nothing. I had the route mapped out. I knew exactly when to pick it up. I understood my body and my breathing on that route that I didn't need a watch. I could run it blindfolded.

The great thing about that route is that I trained for marathons and half-marathons. I ran unofficial PR's. I remember graduation morning that same route. The only bad thing is that I wasn't really growing. If I ran a race that was too  different than my favorite route I suffered for lack of conditioning (see other post about conditioning).

All of that said, there are many positive things that can come from repetition and drilling. I can feel the six mile runs now unlike I did in Jersey. It isn't just the heat, hills, and humidity. It is the lack of training at a particular distance. I'm going to work on getting back to form where three feels like one, six feels like three, ten feels like six and a half, well, feels like a half but with less recovery.