Update: Just finished 20 and made a super concerted effort to keep taking walk breaks and go at a sustainable pace all the way to the end, and then made a conscious effort to not cry when i stopped, and I didn't!!! Idk I kinda missed it...good to know I have control/can choose though. *techinically* i cried a little earlier in the run but it was because of the wind in my eyes, so I don't count it.
Oh my goodness yes, maybe worth a post at some point if I have time to investigate the physical science behind it, but in brief... it's really a knee-jerk reaction. It's so much time on feet and so much effort, so I hypothesize that my body/brain is just flooded with chemicals that make that level of sustained effort possible (if difficult), and then when I stop moving those chemicals hit me like a ton of bricks and the sudden change/cessation of movement is destabilizing and overwhelming.
I could probably stand to eat more during long runs (four hours is a long time to be moving), so maybe blood sugar crashing and lightheadedness is also playing a part? And then there's the actual pain factor, although I feel more fatigue than pain at the end of long runs, for the most part.
Then there's the emotional part of completing the thing you set out to do that day. But even that feels more physical than mental? It's certainly not a conscious decision to start crying, which is why I describe it as knee-jerk.
The best way I can describe it is just the feeling where you've been pushed to a place of exhaustion (outside of exercise, that might be because of very little sleep, lots of stress, a really challenging day of travel in a foreign place where you don't speak the language or something) and you're on a hair trigger and anything could set you off/make you cry, and in this case the simple relief of stopping running is enough to tip you over that edge.
And I just want to be clear, they aren't bad tears. They're kind of satisfying? It feels good to earn them?? It's like, catching your breath. It's a big release. So hard to explain...
I think the fact that it happens does indicate too high a level of effort on my part for a long run, but I also don't know how to avoid that when time on feet is exhausting in and of itself. I really don't know how much slower I would have to go to avoid it.
“Well, it’s been another week! That’s how time works, I guess.” 👈 thank you for this, it made me laugh/sigh because each week I find myself asking the same thing. Four years feels like eternity. 🌀
18 miles! That’s amazing and cool what humans are capable of. I love realizing I’m on a block I’ve somehow never been on. Even in a 20 mile radius it could take a lifetime to see every street on foot or by bike.
Can you say more about why you burst into tears at the end of these long runs? That is quite an impressive distance!
Update: Just finished 20 and made a super concerted effort to keep taking walk breaks and go at a sustainable pace all the way to the end, and then made a conscious effort to not cry when i stopped, and I didn't!!! Idk I kinda missed it...good to know I have control/can choose though. *techinically* i cried a little earlier in the run but it was because of the wind in my eyes, so I don't count it.
I am not a runner but I can def understand why a body might burst into tears spontaneously after exertion like that! Seems like a nice release.
Oh my goodness yes, maybe worth a post at some point if I have time to investigate the physical science behind it, but in brief... it's really a knee-jerk reaction. It's so much time on feet and so much effort, so I hypothesize that my body/brain is just flooded with chemicals that make that level of sustained effort possible (if difficult), and then when I stop moving those chemicals hit me like a ton of bricks and the sudden change/cessation of movement is destabilizing and overwhelming.
I could probably stand to eat more during long runs (four hours is a long time to be moving), so maybe blood sugar crashing and lightheadedness is also playing a part? And then there's the actual pain factor, although I feel more fatigue than pain at the end of long runs, for the most part.
Then there's the emotional part of completing the thing you set out to do that day. But even that feels more physical than mental? It's certainly not a conscious decision to start crying, which is why I describe it as knee-jerk.
The best way I can describe it is just the feeling where you've been pushed to a place of exhaustion (outside of exercise, that might be because of very little sleep, lots of stress, a really challenging day of travel in a foreign place where you don't speak the language or something) and you're on a hair trigger and anything could set you off/make you cry, and in this case the simple relief of stopping running is enough to tip you over that edge.
And I just want to be clear, they aren't bad tears. They're kind of satisfying? It feels good to earn them?? It's like, catching your breath. It's a big release. So hard to explain...
I think the fact that it happens does indicate too high a level of effort on my part for a long run, but I also don't know how to avoid that when time on feet is exhausting in and of itself. I really don't know how much slower I would have to go to avoid it.
“Well, it’s been another week! That’s how time works, I guess.” 👈 thank you for this, it made me laugh/sigh because each week I find myself asking the same thing. Four years feels like eternity. 🌀
18 miles! That’s amazing and cool what humans are capable of. I love realizing I’m on a block I’ve somehow never been on. Even in a 20 mile radius it could take a lifetime to see every street on foot or by bike.
Those Trump items are sickening.