Describe a training run where you surprised yourself

The time I lapped myself during a marathon time trial on the track.

Farted the whole backstretch

Years ago when i was 17 or 18. Think it was 1994.. around there i was a member of a cycling club and every week we would all go for a group ride. And the last 10km stretch we decide to race it. It was fairly flat point to point stretch with a couple of descent hills and there was a bit of a head wind.. anyway i pulled away from everyone. I maintained 58 to 60km an hour for most of the distance slowing down to as low as 53km on the stèeper uphills. When i got to the point where we were to finish at the top if this big hill, I looked back and i could barely see any other riders. Theey were way far in the distance. The cycling coach talked to me after and said.."how did you do that? I was biking as hard as i could and you were pulling away from me so fast." At the upcoming 80km bike race he was telling everyone with certainty how i was going to be the next lance armstrong. I didnt even know who that was at the time. Anyway it was raining during that race and cool weather. My right calf musle cramed right up and it actually popped inwards.. like there was a dent in my calf. It wad painfull. I got off the bike and popped it back out and didnt finish the race. I never raced after that and never reached that level. I wish i knew specifically what i did in training to get to that level.

Also to mention the bike i was using was far from top of the line

My first XC race ever, I ran just under 7:00 per mile for 3.05 miles. One month later, 5 days before my last race of the season, I ran 8 miles on the road with my coach and a bunch of other guys. I finished the run with only my coach and an injured varsity runner. My coach said we had finished in 57 minutes, I'm still not sure I believe him.

Over the winter before my last semester of college I was working out with a high school teammate who was a top D1 800 runner (1:47 at the time). I was a pretty good D3 runner (1:55, 4:04, 4:31). I had "worked out" with him before but that winter i was actually able to keep up with him. He didn't run XC and I was coming off a strong XC season. Anyways, towards the end of break we did 6x1k workout with 2:30 rest. We alternated leading each one and went 3:01, 3:01, 2:59, 3:00, 2:58, 2:58 and I was able to stay within myself. I wrote in my log afterwards " I'm starting to think im in pretty good shape." I ended up dropping 19 seconds off my mile PR and 10 off my 1500 that season. Working out with one of the NCAA's top runners was a real confidence boost for me.

Beat my 5M PR by 45 on a tempo run

Ran 5K PR pace in the last 2 miles of an 11 mile "easy" run

I always had good speed but crappy endurance. I remember hard tempo runs in high school of like 4 miles at 6:20 pace while at the same time I was 1:55-1:59 for the 800.

As I got older and better, my tempo runs starting dropping below 6 min pace. Eventually 5 miles at 6:00 pace was my personal indicator that I was in good shape.

One season I worked with a new coach. We did a whole lot of running just slower than tempo. After a few months of this, the assignment one Saturday was 10 miles around 6:15 pace. The first mile was 6:05 and I felt great, and I just rolled, eventually working down to 5:40 for the last mile. When I was younger I never thought I'd run 6:00 pace for 10 miles, and in that workout I averaged 5:53's and it was a true tempo effort, getting tired by the end but able to keep going if I had to. For a speed guy like me that really surprised me.

I took 3 weeks off after XC, ran easy for 3 weeks, then ran a 4 mile tempo @ 5:05 pace. I usually did tempos around 5:20 pace in good shape. Ever since then I've been consistent with 5 mile tempos at the same pace with the effort level lowering.

It was a solo long run in February before spring track season of my high school senior year. I had always thought of myself as a better performer at long distances, but in high school that just meant I was better at 5k's than miles (16:20 road pr 5k pr vs. 4:50 mile pr). My buddy and I always liked tearing up the long runs (holding 6:20-6:40 pace for most of 14 or 16 miles), but I had no concept of how fast we could really go over those distances. I figured those paces were fairly close to my limit.

Then that weekend my buddy went out of town to race his first ever half marathon. I wanted to go to, but couldn't for some reason, and I was angry about it. I decided to tempo my long run on the road that morning and race with him in spirit.

I felt good, so I started at what I figured was 6:10-6:15 pace, the fastest pace I had ever held for 12 miles. On this course, I had committed to memory mile markers for miles 3, 6, 9, 12, and 14 (the end). I hit the 3 mile marker in 17:15, and immediately thought, "well, that's obviously not right . . . probably the wrong mailbox." But then I hit the 6 mile in 34:30. It was just starting to hurt, but I knew right then there was no going back.

The course that had been completely flat turned to rolling hills for the next 6 miles, but I held on as best as I could and gutted out 12 miles in 1:10:11 (5:50 pace). I jogged in the last two miles to my car.

I called my buddy later that day and found out that he had won his half in 1:15 just slightly faster than my run.

I never thought about long distance the same way again.