David Jaewon Oh
Renee Metivier Baillie knew the workout would be be difficult. This was her first 20-mile run, and it was supposed to include 5 miles at marathon pace and 3 miles at half marathon pace.
“The temperature rose into the 90s, and I knew that was going to make a tough day even tougher,” she says. After the 5 miles at marathon pace, Metivier Baillie was sitting on the ground, exhausted, facing the question all runners do when it’s not their day: Should she suck it up and keep going, change the workout or just call it a day?
In a “no pain, no gain” world, that can be a difficult question. But getting the answer right is key to training successfully, says Pete Pfitzinger, an exercise physiologist and Olympic marathoner. “There’s a fine line between pushing hard to succeed and setting yourself back,” he says.