With winter upon us (at least up here in the northern Midwest) a lot of
us runners either take time off the heal old injuries (that has been me
recently) or head for the treadmill.
After figuring out how to dress for cold weather running, I began avoiding treadmills and found running outside in the elements to be great.
Which takes me to the title of this section - during the
winter we tend to do more solo running, simply because there are fewer crazy
people willing to run outside.
I find group runs to be somewhat social events; there is
a fair amount of conversation, I like that I can meet new people, and it makes
the run go by fairly quickly. I do learn some new things, but aside
from getting my miles in, what did I get out of the run?
When I'm running solo, I'm constantly thinking about my
form, the consistency (or lack of) my pace, and meeting the goals of my run.
That doesn't happen during a group run.
During a group run, the goal is mostly about getting the agreed to miles
in... Somebody sets the pace and away you go.
I believe that solo runs give me the opportunity to judge
myself from a very particular perspective. I start out with a goal for that
run, be it long or short, and then I measure myself against my progress towards
that goal. I calculate and measure my splits, I try to be conscious of my form
(are my feet landing under my hips, are my arms swinging in line with my
motion, or am I flailing them around, are my hips forward, is my head up, etc).
I'm not totally geeky about this 100% of the time, but I do try to run as
efficiently as possible.
The other thing that I get out of solo runs, particularly
long runs, is the confidence that I can do it on my own. At the end of the day,
when I'm out there running a distance event, I know that it is all up to me and
me alone. The support of a group is great, but in the end it will be my legs,
my stamina, and my ability to persevere over whatever ails me that will get me across the finish
line.
So even though I'm not a big fan of group runs, I have admit that it was by
getting involved with a group that I learned that I could run at a faster pace than that
which I had become accustomed to running.
During my first group run, I remember being shocked at what a quick pace
the group trotted off at (in retrospect it wasn't that fast...but faster than I
was accustomed to) but I kept up with them, albeit bringing up the rear. The
route we were running went through a bit of downtown so we to deal with traffic
lights, and I recall panting "red light, red light, give me a red
light" so that I would have a chance to catch my breath (and catch up). I
noticed after a while that the lead guy eventually started timing the lights in
my favor - he must have heard me (or sensed some measure of my distress). Those traffic lights were the only way I made it through the run! We did 9 miles+ at the fastest
pace I had yet to run, effectively pushing me into a new level. That may not of
happened if I was only running solo. I had gained a whole new level of confidence because of it!
There was another time with a different group that we did
trails - a totally new experience for me and something that I may not of tried
on my own. Now I'm hooked on trials and would like to do more.
The point of all this is that I think that there is place
for group runs and solo runs, and it is not a bad idea to do both. But for the winter, it will mostly be solo...
