Have you experienced? (Read 346 times)

But perhaps the weirdest experience was one I had in my early 20s.  I was former-athlete fit.  This was before I ran regularly.  One rather warm night in the summer, when the air was completely dead, I decided to go out for a run.  Put on a pair of 5 year old running shoes that I used for mowing lawns, and just hit the road.  There was a funk to the time and the air: it lead me to this zen experience where I wasn't there.  It wasn't flow.  I wasn't in harmony with the work.  I was negated.  I wasn't there.  It was more a meditation.  I probably ran 7 miles that night, which now doesn't seem like a lot but 4miles is probably more than I'd ever run at once.  I wasn't tired at all.  And I was probably running just below tempo pace, because I was a former soccer player and didn't know any better.  I stopped because I thought, gee it must be late, I should probably stop.  I was serenely calm.

 

Never happened again.

Wow.  Interesting. Thanks for sharing that zen experience!  I wonder if others have had that kind as well.

As for me, I experienced the "flow" state once while on a hard trail run.  I was pretty fit but as always, running hills are hard work.  At some point I wasn't really aware of any effort, even though clearly effort was there because I was climbing, descending and watching my footing.  I felt like I was a part of nature and although time was passing, it felt like time was standing still.  I did not feel euphoria.  Instead, I was acutely aware of the wildlife around me perhaps observing me as part of their world, the trees swaying in a gentle breeze which caressed my skin, my feet hitting the ground quietly and smoothly, just...running.   It was the coolest thing ever until I awoke from my reverie several miles later, suddenly aware of hammering down a huge hill and that my legs were hurting and gee I was almost done for the day!

Some studies done in Germany and at U of MO say that runners high is real, but most of the effect is due to the release of endocannabinoids and not endorphins.

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/homing-in-on-the-source-of-runners-high/?_r=0

From personal experience, I can say most definitely, YES there is a runner's high, but my most intense post workout euphoria came after intense road bike workouts with my buddies back in the day of racing USCF Road and Criterium races. If someone in our small training group wasn't puking on their handlebars it was not a hard workout that week. I fondly remember those Sunday mornings of my youth when I would come home from a 50 mile hammer session in the hills and then go on to have the most angelic experience in church. The downside of those sessions were the heart-rate headaches that would come later in the day. Most of the guys I rode with had similar experiences.

So put down the hash pipe and put on your runners.

Definition of euphoria
: a feeling of well-being or elation

I think maybe we overestimate what a runner's high is. It's not like shooting up (I suspect).

I've experienced sudden feeling during runs that I can go as fast as I want as far as I want without effort. I remember an 11 mile run in Central Park when all my inhibitions lifter and I just let rip running the last 2 miles or so at 5K PR pace without seeming any effort. That sort of thing has happened a few times.

I LIVE for the flow. It's such a beautiful feeling because you're doing something that sucks, but like, it doesn't feel as bad as it's supposed to, or as it usually does. You're just rolling and rolling until you're done. The best way I can describe it is that you see and feel the whole workout as more of a wholistic experience, rather than agonizing individual reps or sets. The flow always results in the best workouts, although I can't say I've felt it in a race.

Runners high is great, running while high is great too...  First time I dipped into the Grand Canyon there were some Cali dudes sitting on a rock ripping a bowl about a mile down South Kaibab trail, I hollered out from the switchback above that something smelled delicious and they kindly offered to share once I rounded the corner.  Yep, young and foolish, yada yada; don't care, life is short and the herb's ok.  A most intense flow state can also be achieved by micro-dosing with LSD for your next LSD run but judging from the previous comments here I won't pontificate on those experiences....

Damn good!!

Not necessarily stoned but beautiful