So I saw a shitty movie the other day. No, not Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (which is, in fact, a quality film), but The Long Run. It’s the story of a running coach in South Africa, an untrained female runner and the adversity they face to get her to the Comrades Marathon (a 55.9 mile Ultra, which of course, she wins). It was plodding, badly acted, but wasn’t a total loss, since it gave me so much to laugh at.

Picture this; We’re at the race. Our heroine, Christine (who has such obviously sucky running form) is accompanied by the coach’s ragamuffin running team of 4 men. One by one, the race proves too much for these guys (who’ve been running zillions of miles before she ever came on the scene). They start dropping out because they aren’t as tough as our speedy heroine. But when I say “drop out”, I mean literally drop, as in fall down in the middle of the road. I guess moving a foot to the side of the road would be too agonizing or something.

Finally, every teammate from our Coach’s rapscallion group has toppled to his feet except one remaining guy, who happens to have the absolute fattest thighs I’ve ever seen on a recreational jogger, much less an Ultra runner. Show me a hardcore long-distance runner with such big fat, chunky monkey legs and I’ll eat those disgusting soy bars from last season’s goody bags.

But the main reason I’m bringing this movie up, is that throughout the flick, our gruffy, grey-haired coach-with-a-heart-of-gold, constantly shouts at our heroine, “Faster, Christine, Faster” as she travels over endless dusty South African roads. Forget recovery runs, easy runs, long runs, just “Faster, Christine, Faster” every damn day.

When I saw this bit of idiocy, I knew it was my sign to start doing the opposite, to slow down some of my runs. I’ve read enough books and contributions from Daniels, Lydiard, Pfitzinger, Noakes, McMillan and the like, to know that in order to do your quality runs properly, you gotta respect the slower paces. And with Steamtown in my sites, my aim is to do things as “right” as possible.

So, yesterday, for the first time in months, I strapped on my HRM for a mid-long of 9.5 miles, and ran a slower run than usual – 9:32. I was happily surprised to find a huge improvement in my average heart rate (67%), the lowest I’ve measured on a continuous run, as a matter of fact. And this slower run couldn’t have been better timed, since it came at the heels of the previous day’s 6-mile tempo run which, including warmup and cooldown, averaged 8:09/mi. Yin and Yang, baby.

Yeah, maybe Christine needs to go “faster, faster” every single run so she can win the Comrades in movieland. As for me, I’m gonna concentrate on taking it easy when I’m supposed to so I can pounce when the time is right. And with that, comes my new running motto for 2008: “Slower, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”

Meow.

Shameless afternoon edit: I just returned from an easy 8, wearing the HRM, guessing that to keep at 75% (suggested HR for easy runs), I’d need to keep the pace around 9:10.  Uh, no! It seems I’ve been doing just fine all along… avg pace today 8:40, HR 74% – with negative splits! Once again, I’ve created drama where there is none. Carry on.

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