For anyone not used to this athlete's high, you basically feel all happy and that the world is just great; you have no cares in the world and pain and exhaustion are not part of your vocabulary. For most people, this high does not last very long; a few hours at most. The longest I ever had a high was after a recent 10 mile run; I was doing awesome for over half a day.
I am no stranger to the Runner's High. However, I don't just get it from running, but also during cycling and swimming. I write cycling and not biking because I used to bike a lot, but never at higher intensities and for long durations with no stops. Also, I have never gotten this feeling when biking inside on a spin bike (guess I'll have to try this out on my newly purchased trainer).
I have never gotten a high from any running distance under 10 miles. Many articles say 10k or more, but that has never happened for me. With that said, I did get a high after a 5k run...except it was the final leg of a Sprint Triathlon. Maybe I am not in good enough shape yet, but after my Olympic distance triathlons I have done, I have yet to get a runner's high...I am psyched that I finished but completely exhausted...but no high. The only times I have gotten highs from swimming are when I have swam at a steady pace for longer than 1 hour 15 minutes. I can say this with certainty because EVERY swim of this duration or longer I get the high.
Although I get highs from running, swimming, cycling, and triathlons, I do have to note that the duration and intensity of the high differs greatly. Nothing beats a runner's high; although the swimming one is the closest I have gotten so far. If I used a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the runner's high, I would say the swimming high was around a 7, and lasted me for a maximum of 1 hour. The cycling ones are around a 4-5, and don't usually last longer than 20-30 minutes. My only triathlon high was the sprint distance, and that lasted me about the same as cycling.
When I was younger, I used to think I could bring on a runner's high by just thinking about running. It turns out that it was just my heart rate increasing due to excitement, causing more oxygen to be pumped through my veins and giving me a sense of euphoria. Not even close to the same thing...but I was a kid...that's my excuse and I am sticking to it.
If you are trying to get your runner's high, then get ready for longer distance cardio and typically you won't experience it until you have some sort of decent conditioning, as exercising to the point exhaustion typically will never trigger the high; it's the tempo runs or workouts where you are working out and pushing yourself, but at a comfortable level that isn't pushing yourself to the max. Good luck!
