What Runner’s High?

Posted by Cynical Sarah on May 19, 2010

This week I started Week 7 of the Couch to 5k training program. Before you start applauding too loudly, I have to be honest and say that I started on Week 2, so really I’ve only been doing this for six weeks.

I did that because I was already incorporating some jogging into my speed walking during the week, so I figured I could skip ahead a bit. This decision was made with full knowledge of all the warnings and advice on all the sites that you should start on Week 1 no matter what you think your own running fitness level is unless you’re already a runner and then you wouldn’t be doing this program anyway.

So, I really didn’t do myself any favors. Basically I cut off an easy week and now here I am at Week 7 having to run 25 minutes straight already.

It’s a five-minute speed walk to warm up, 25 minutes of jogging, then five more speed walking minutes to cool down. That’s how Week 6 ended after interval running the earlier part of the week, and now this week it’s goodbye to the intervals and three sessions of running for 25 minutes straight.

My question, having now done two runs for this week, plus the one last week, is where in the world is this “runner’s high” I’ve heard so much about. At no point in my six weeks of training have I reached this so called “high.”

At first I thought maybe it was because I was still doing intervals and the longest I’d run is 10 minutes at a time with a break between them. Then I had a 20 minute run in Week 5. No runner’s high. Then the 25 minute run at the end of Week 6, and now Week 7’s runs. Still no high.

At no point while I’m running do I really feel like I’m enjoying it. I would say the happiest point of my run is when the voice on my podcast says “And now your run is done, but don’t stop now because you still need to do a five-minute brisk walk to cool down.”

Throughout the rest of the run, I’m just trying to make myself keep running. The first eight minutes or so are pretty easy. I’m enjoying the music, and I’m on a good pace. The middle section I have to start focusing more on my breathing so I don’t hit that out-of-breath panic state. That final third of the run, I really have to push myself mentally not to give up.

It really is all about mental toughness for me though. When I’m done, I’ve still got enough energy to do a brisk walk for my cool down and walk home again. Plus it doesn’t take too much to recover my breath and bring my heart rate back down. So my body can handle a 25 minute run just fine at this point – it’s my brain that thinks I can’t.

So when the running part is finally done, it feels good to know I made it through and stuck with the plan, but those runner endorphins or whatever it is never do seem to kick in for me to help me get there. I just get into a good rhythm and try to stick it out until the voice in the mp3 player tells me I can stop. I just hope she’s not messing with me and at the end of my nine weeks on this thing I’m only doing 15 minutes instead of a 30-minute run. How disappointing would that be?

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Tags: Couch to 5k, exercise, fitness, health, running

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