Running with Friends.

It is often hard, when you get into the training mode to remember that one of the best things about 'running' the trails is the chance to spend time with good friends. Conversation out there in the midst of the rain forest often progresses at a relaxed pace and as the trail permits. This often means that people have time to think and reflect before responding. It means better and deeper communication than one might obtain over a cup of coffee or amidst the gang at the start line of a race.

But like I said you have to weigh the costs of communication against the costs of training. Old friends, and in my case that has come to mean the upper echelon of the HURT gang, are often less likely to be 'on pace' as you head up the Hogback and somewhere along Roots and Rocks you may have to make a decision: Am I training hard, or am I running with a good friend? As one who habitually takes the back of the pack position on race day it is hard for me to do the switch. Others, like Fish, have developed a truly benevolent character, and do it regularly. But the point is that often training with friends requires some decision making.

I had a good set of examples of this this past week. I managed to finally get out with Cheryl on Tuesday and we did about 5 miles over the first section of the HURT course. Cheryl was not happy with me as I left her behind before we hit Three Balls but I know she is a Trooper and figured I come back down after I did my cardio training. I was also running with David my hanai nephew that day and wanted to see what he had in him after months of Hong Kong work life. So I pushed up the hill at a good clip, not quite as fast as the push the day before with Fish, but still an admirable pace. I led David toward the top, occasionally leaving him behind, but hearing him rally each time I threatened to widen the gap beyond repair. I figured David was hanging back a bit, ready to pounce when I made that final push; it what kids do to their elders. But I was going to make it as hard as I could on him non-the-less. The inevitable happened in the last 30 yards up the Hogback. I made my move and heard David right behind me, and then he sprinted past me to beat me to the top by ten feet or so. An eighteen something.

Then we turned around and went back down to find Cheryl. I let Cheryl lead the Cross-over, and she was unmerciful on the downs, and hard to catch on the ups. But there was time to talk in those intervals near the tops, so the conversation would pick up a bit, then drop off as we topped the ridge and Cheryl took off at a pace my body was not interested in maintaining. The long run up Mangos and Nahuina allowed us more opportunities to talk. It was nice to be out with Cheryl again as our training schedules do not coincide to much anymore--I'm not a 4:30 kind of guy. We did the top in a reasonable time, did Concretes to the gate, and then went down the road to Makiki Valley Trail and in to Center and down.

The next day I went out with Don. We started the same route, but as I started to pull away from him on Roots and Rocks he called up to me. "Hey, give me my keys and wallet. (He'd stuffed them in my Camel.) I didn't come out here to watch you through a set of binoculars." Right then and there I understood that I had to adjust my goals for the day. Don and I stayed together the rest of the way, did the route, a full concretes and came back Manoa Cliffs, eight miles or so. It was a good day for conversation. It wasn't a walk, and we were both pushing hard up Concretes. I pushed Don a bit, which is what he needed, and we had some nice periods where we could talk. I didn't get in a power training session, which I could have used, but that was not the point of the run. Our Wednesday morning runs have never been about that. We do the Makapu'u Lighthouse because we can walk side by side and talk, we did the Valley run at a pace where we could converse.

And here is an interesting point. Its been pretty much proven that the best pace for building up your muscles, for spurring the formation of additional mitochondria in the muscle tissue, is a good walking pace where you can still converse. So by slowing and moving along at an enjoyable pace we were both doing a necessary part of long term ultra distance training. Not everything is about speed, or even distance. Good training is a nice blend of paces and distances.

So you can say that somethings hanging back and spending time with your slower paced friends can actually be better training than pushing ahead and nailing the course. Your muscles need the periods of moderate activity to develop properly, and you could probably use the time to converse with friends you don't usually have time to be with. There is more to running than watching the stop watch.