{"id":2068,"date":"2026-04-11T17:42:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T17:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/?p=2068"},"modified":"2026-04-11T17:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T17:42:45","slug":"when-reality-doesnt-meet-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/11\/when-reality-doesnt-meet-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"When reality doesn’t meet expectations…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are four stretches of dirt trail, each ranging from .1 to .5 miles, along my standard running routes where my pace as it relates to effort doesn’t make sense in the context of the terrain. It’s common knowledge that we tend to run faster on most downhills whereas going uphill requires more effort.

Two of these stretches, roughly .1 mile each, have a clear elevation change. Both are gradual but they’re fairly easy to see. However, when going uphill along them, I never have any issue maintaining or increasing my pace.\u00a0

There’s a .5 mile stretch near my house and when I’m on my way back on a run, it occurs between 1.5 miles and 1 mile to go. There is clearly elevation change\u00a0of the uphill variety on this stretch and I can definitely feel more strain. However, my pace always gets faster along it. More absurdly, it’s not like this is a case of getting closer to home because I find the final mile that follows it to be challenging and my results within it are all over the place. Note, this oddity of being unexpectedly faster is fine, it’s just odd.

The final and most perplexing of these four is a .25 mile stretch just west of me. It looks pancake flat. According to my watch, there is elevation gain but it’s not significant. However, every time I run it, my pace gets clobbered and I struggle, even if I’m pushing hard to compensate. Running the opposite direction on it, I might still feel terrible and yet my pace is noticably faster. At least there’s benefit in the opposite direction. I would say this stretch is in my head but a couple of friends of mine have experienced the same phenomenon.

I did a post some time back<\/a> about the illogical effect of places on a couple of athletes’ and team’s performances. I suppose this is in the same vein of places where reality doesn’t meet expectations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are four stretches of dirt trail, each ranging from .1 to .5 miles, along my standard running routes where my pace as it relates to effort doesn’t make sense in the context of the terrain. It’s common knowledge that we tend to run faster on most downhills whereas going uphill requires more effort. Two … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “When reality doesn’t meet expectations…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9W0ku-xm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1600,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/17\/the-deception-of-elevation-shifts\/","url_meta":{"origin":2068,"position":0},"title":"The deception of elevation shifts\u2026","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"June 17, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"There\u2019s an out-and-back six-mile run along the trail near my house that I thoroughly enjoy. It includes one steep hill in the middle but otherwise is slightly net uphill on the way out and then slightly net downhill on the way back. Here\u2019s what\u2019s funny, and it may explain why\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1491,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/15\/up-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":2068,"position":1},"title":"Up, down…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"October 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"For races, it's helpful to check out a course map and an elevation profile ahead of time, if they're available. Especially with hills it's useful to know where they are, even if they're gradual or barely discernible, so you can strategize appropriately.In a couple of 5Ks I've run, though the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1092,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/14\/keeping-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":2068,"position":2},"title":"Keeping on…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"May 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"On my next-to-last run prior to the time off I referenced a couple of blog posts ago, I did a test on part of my marathon course for this coming fall. Because I was dealing with a couple of sore spots in my legs, I did ten miles instead of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1146,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2021\/09\/17\/counteracting-fatigue-with-details\/","url_meta":{"origin":2068,"position":3},"title":"Counteracting fatigue with details…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"September 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my primary concerns around the virtual marathon on 3 October\u00a0was mental fatigue. This isn't\u00a0boredom as my mind is always racing (no pun intended, really) and I enjoy the ability to lose myself in thought on\u00a0long runs. Rather, pushing yourself at race pace while on your own outside of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1699,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/24\/something-tough-and-new\/","url_meta":{"origin":2068,"position":4},"title":"Something tough and new…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"October 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Following a 5K recently, I lamented to a friend of mine the struggle from the one-mile mark through two and part of the third miles. This is never an easy stretch of the race but the difference this time was the fall-off in speed. It had happened a few times\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1852,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/04\/and-the-result-was\/","url_meta":{"origin":2068,"position":5},"title":"And the result was…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"October 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"As I pondered a goal time for the 10-Miler, I kept a couple of things in mind. I had only ever run one 10-mile race and that was in 2021. It was mostly flat: net uphill on the way out, net down on the way back. I posted a 69:50,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2069,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068\/revisions\/2069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}