For my four hour trail run today, I chose to run the section of the Rachel Carson Trail, that would complete my sectional run of the whole trail.  I ran from Emmerling Park to the Western Terminus of the trail.

My wife dropped me off at the park and it was beautiful.  The colors of the leaves were all shades of green, yellow, orange and red.  Down by the creek, where I started my run, was so peaceful.  

Most of the first mile that I ran today, was actually on a road.  I made quick progress but my legs felt very tired.  They have felt this way, at the start of almost all of my runs lately, so I wasn’t too concerned.  They have typically started to feel much better after about 15-20 minutes of running.

When I was about forty minutes into my run, and my legs still felt bad, I started to think that it was going to be a very long day.  Running for four hours on technical trails, with tired legs, was going to be tough. 

I did end up enjoying myself, but it was definitely a painful run.  My legs just felt dead the whole time, and they are still sore ,as I write this blog.  The fatigue I am feeling is not a surprise; I am in week number seven of a major run block. 

Running on tired legs is not new to me.  I do it several times a year, especially as I build for an Ironman race.  I actually think it is really a good thing.  It helps build strength (provided you rest and recover adequately), but more importantly, it helps build the mental resilience, that you need as an endurance athlete. 

In any long course race, there comes a time where fatigue starts to build, and thoughts of quitting start to occur.  It is the experience of workouts, where you run for hours on tired legs, that allows you to convince yourself, that you can indeed continue running in a race.  Today was a perfect example of that.  I ran for almost four hours, on legs that wanted me to quit.

I don’t advocate doing it often, but I do think it helps you as an athlete, to run on tired legs every once in a while.