Set Points...and Ultrarunning

Got motivated and ran 10 miles on Wed, the longest since my tennis elbow surgery in late May.  It went well and with no problems with the arm, but I was getting low on energy towards the end…although my theory is that when we know the length of a long-ish planned run, mentally your body seems to wind down as you come to the end.

It’s like when you pre-pay cash at the gas station, say $40, and when the pump runs up to $39 or so it begins to slow down in preparation for stopping.  This set point phenomenon (the running part, not the gas part) has happened many times in my own training experience, so I’ve come to expect it and am not surprised or bummed out by it.