Runner's High

I woke up this morning after bouldering all day yesterday with lots of sore muscles, particularly those in my upper body. Even though I've been trying to work on my pushups, my triceps and lats were really tight and worn out. Originally I had planned to go on a bike ride today because I've only gotten out on it once since I've been here. But I checked the forecast and the wind has been gusting up to 40 miles/hour out on the east side of 120, the same gust speed as the last time I went on a ride, so that discouraged me a bit. I haven't been out on a run since my disastrous attempt at 4 miles last week, so I figured I would just go out for a jog and see how it went.

I drove out to Grant Lake Reservoir, a beautiful cerulean blue lake nestled up against Mt. Wood on the June Lake Loop. The highway skirts the west side of the lake, but a small dirt fisherman's road runs along the east side for a couple of miles until it runs into a series of cliffs. I parked at the beginning of this road and began my run. I hadn't eaten much in the morning, but my stomach was feeling a little unsettled as I started out. I was nervous that this, not shortness of breath or tired muscles, might cut my run short. But it felt good to have the dirt road passing quickly under my advancing stride and as I began to fall into the routine of a run, fully engrossed both in my surroundings - a wall of 12,000 foot peaks to my right and a glacial moraine to my left - and the latest This American Life podcast, I forgot all about my upset stomach and just began to enjoy my run.

I was really careful this time to pick a route that wasn't too hilly. I know that eventually I'll have to work that into my training, but right now at the beginning, it's a little too discouraging when I feel like I need all the success I can get. This route was really nice - it followed a pretty consistent contour around the east side of the lake with only one or two small hills to put a little burn in my legs. However, what I hadn't taken into account was the wind. Silly, I know because the whole reason I was running instead of biking was wind, but I thought I would be protected tucked up against the moraine. Wrong. The whole way out, a strong head wind was whistling in my ears, making my podcast difficult to ear, and making my eyes water. Again, I was a little apprehensive, but it turned out ok. It actually felt like someone was pumping air down my lungs and it meant that I got to run in the sun without overheating. It was pretty fun! I got a little more than two miles out and turned around to make my return journey. At this point I started feeling a little fatigued, not too out of breath, just a little tightening in my glutes and hamstrings. I was a little nervous, but wanted to keep running just to see if I could do the 4 miles.

My run back was fantastic. I started taking longer strides with the wind at my back and felt like I was flying. At about the halfway point, my feet started to tingle and I got a little light headed. I wasn't really sure what was going on, but I wanted to keep running. Then I got butterflies in my stomach and suddenly I wasn't breathing hard anymore. My body was still moving at the same pace, but it was like I wasn't having to try at all, the wind and the endorphins carried me along. This was the first time I had ever experienced the "runner's high," something my ex-marathoner mom has told me about since the first time I ran three miles during track try-outs my freshman year. I always thought it was kind of a myth that runner's talked about because they're doing things that most other people don't enjoy doing, but now I know that it's a real thing and that unless I run at least 4 miles, I won't get to experience it again. How's that for motivation?

4.16 mi/41 min