Out-And-Back or Loop-de-Loop?

So much of a training program is mental.  Sure, the physical part is challenging, but you won’t get there if you don’t overcome the mental hurdles first – getting out of bed in the morning, getting dressed in workout clothes, actually heading out the door for a run.  Sometimes we play mind games with ourselves to get it done.  Today I have been thinking about the different mental challenges of an out-and-back route versus a loop. 

I was planning on an 8 mile run on the bike path.  That would be 4 miles out and back.  When I do this run, I only have to mentally get myself to the turn-around point.  I have no doubt that I will run all the way back to where my car is parked. 🙂

While I was walking my dog, I was enticed by the cool weather (and I’ll admit it, a bit later start time than I intended) to do a neighborhood run instead.  My neighborhood runs are more challenging because I can’t go very far without encountering a serious hill, and then there will be another one, and another. 

I have a 7-ish mile loop I do, but I really wanted to do between 8 and 9, so I got on runningmap.com and figured out a 8-9 mile loop – with an option at mile 6 to make it shorter if I needed to.  I was struck by how hard it was to plot out such a long loop.  I had to venture into new territory, cross a “mental” divide into areas I consider to be “too far” away, and run through new neighborhoods – including right past my dad’s house (“Hi, dad!”).

Even running the route, it felt long.  Maybe part of that was because it was my first time running this route – although the first 3.25 miles were part of my usual loop, the next 2.75 were along roads I haven’t run on since my high school days (and I was NOT a runner back then, but forced to do cross-country by some horrible scheduling error that made P.E. impossible).  At the decision point at mile 6, I opted for the longer route, but more because it delayed the final hill for another mile than because I was feeling so energetic.  The rest of my route was famliar, and the mental part got easier again.

My neighborhood loops always are more of a mental challenge than my out-and-back routes,  I think because I never feel like I am “halfway done.”  I may have hit mile 4, but I still have new hills to climb before I’m done. Its the same on the treadmill.  The last half of a treadmill workout is never easier.  I never hit the half way time and think “Woohoo! Halfway done!”  It’s more like, “Great, I’m only halfway done.”

I feel completely different about races, though.  I do not like out-and-back races.  I do not like hitting the turn-around point and knowing I am only halfway done.  I do not like having the elite (and not-so-elite) runners pass me on their way back when I still have a way to go before I turn around.  I don’t like running down a hill on the first leg knowing that it will be “all up” on the way back.  For races, I would rather run a loop or a point-to-point course, where once I’ve conquered a mile I am done with it!