TITLE: Pace and Expectations
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: June 15, 2005  5:16 PM
DESC: The idea of sustainable pace is more complex than just "you can't go too fast for too long".  What counts as too long depends in part on expectations.
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BODY:
This isn't (just) a running post, though it starts
with a running story.

This morning, I did my last speed workout before the
<A HREF="http://www.cedarriverrunnersclub.com/">
   half marathon</A>
I will run in 11 days.  I have not yet started back
to real interval training since
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-10.html#e2004-10-17T15_23_52.htm">
   my marathon last October</A>,
Instead, I have been focusing on sustaining speed over
longer distances.  I would ordinarily have run 8 miles
today at something just under 7:00/mile.  With the
half-marathon looming, I decided to test myself a bit
and try to run 10 miles at 7:00/mile.  In an ideal
world, I would run that pace in my race.  For my
workout, I'd be slowing down a bit to target race pace
but sustaining the pace for a longer stretch.  It's
good to train the body and mind to recognize and hold
your target pace, so I was hoping to run all of my
miles this morning in about the same time, between
6:50-6:54/mile.

Going from 8 miles to 10 at a challenging pace may not
seem like all that much, but it is a challenge.  Usually,
I finish my 8-mile workout pretty well spent, often
having to work hard over the last three miles to keep
the pace up.  Where would I get the extra energy, both
physical and mental, to go as fast for longer?

In some ways, the physical part is the easier of the
two.  You can usually do more physically than you think.
When a person tells me, "I can't even jog a block", I
usually think they could.  It might well hurt a bit,
but they could do it.  There muscles are more powerful
than they realize.  Since getting into better shape, I
have often been surprised that my body could do more
than I expected of it.

The mental energy is another story.  Even if my body can
handle 10 miles at race pace, it will beginning feeling
the stress much sooner.  I knew that my body would be
talking back to me this morning -- "Why?  Why?" -- by
the six or seventh mile.  Being able to keep the faith
and keep the pace becomes a mental challenge, answering
the calls of fatigue and pain with energy found elsewhere.

How did I manage?  I think that the key was having a
fixed and realistic target for the run.  10 miles isn't
<EM>that</EM> much more than 8, so I know that my body
can do it.  Knowing that I only had to put together two
more miles allowed my mind to adjust to the small increment
before the run began.  When I started to feel the workout
in its seventh mile, my mind was ready...  "Just a couple
of more miles.  Focus on the pace of individual laps.
It's only two miles beyond what you usually do."  Then,
when I reached the 8-mile mark and my body mostly felt
like stopping, I could say to myself, "Just a couple
of more miles.  You just did two tough ones.  Will these
really be any harder?"  They weren't.  My body could do it.

I don't actually conduct this internal dialogue all that
much as I run, only in the moments when my focus shifts
away from the lap I'm running to the seemingly vast number
of laps that remain.  I can't run those laps yet; all I
have is this one.

I think it's a game of <STRONG>expectations</STRONG>.
With reasonable expectations, the mind can help you do
more than otherwise would be comfortable.  An important
part of reasonableness is duration--this only works well
in the short term.  Had I tried to run a full 13 miles
this morning at race pace, my mind may have failed me.
My body is still recovering from
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2005-06.html#e2005-06-11T12_22_39.htm">
   recent 5K</A>
and a 12-mile weekend run, and so it would begin to
complain with increasing fervor as the miles added up.
And I doubt that my spirit would have been strong enough
to win the battle, because doing a 13 miles at race pace
isn't reasonable for this day.  But with a reasonable
short-term expectation, I was able to handle crunch time
with that short-term horizon in mind.

I've written about sustainable pace before, including
about what happens when I
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-08.html#e2004-08-27T13_09_04.htm">
   try to go faster than a sustainable pace</A>
for too long and how software developers might
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-12.html#e2004-12-06T18_57_26.htm">
   train for speed</A>.
(I've even referenced sustainable pace in the context
of a
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-09.html#e2004-09-20T08_29_38.htm">
   Bill Murray film</A>.)
But the idea has been on mind again lately in a
different way.  The pace that is sustainable is
closely tied to one's expectations about its endurance.
This mental expectations game applies in running, but
it also applies in other human endeavors, including
software development.

A recent thread on the XP mailing list considered the
proposition that
<A HREF="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extremeprogramming/message/107982">
   "crunch mode" doesn't work</A>.
There didn't seem to be many folks defending the side
that crunch mode <EM>can</EM> work.  That's because
most people were thinking about sustainable pace over
the long run, which is what agile folks tend to mean
when they talk about pace.  They do so for good reason,
because the danger in software development has usually
been for companies to try to overdo it, to push developers
too far and too fast, with the result being a decrease
in software quality and ultimately the burn-out of the
developers.

At least one person, though,
<A HREF="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extremeprogramming/message/108007">
    argued that crunch mode can work</A>.
The gist of SirGilligan's claim is that a software team
can go faster and still do quality work -- but only for
a well-defined short term.  He even used a running metaphor
in defining such a crunch time: <EM>We are not 1/3 along
the way, we are in the straight-a-way and heading for the
finish line.</EM>  How can developers win the expectations
game in such a scenario?  The end is clearly in sight:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
Pending features are well defined.  Order of feature
implementation is defined.  Team is excited for the
chance to deliver.  It is the team's choice and idea
to crunch, not some manager's idea.  We enter crunch
mode!  After we deliver everyone gets the following
Friday and Monday off for a four-day weekend!
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

That sounds an awful lot like what a runner does when
she races a marathon or half-marathon faster than she
thinks otherwise possible.  The pending goal is
well-defined.  The runner is excited to deliver.  She
chooses to push faster.  And, after the race, you take
a few days off for rest.  A party, of course, is always
in order!

I think the great ones are able to manage their
expectations in a way that allows them to do more than
usual for a short while.  The good news for the rest of
us is that we can learn to do the same, which gives us
the ability to succeed in a wider variety of circumstances.
Just always keep in mind:  You can't keep going faster
indefinitely.
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