MARATHON TRAINING, Winter 2022

 

“THIS WASN’T MEANT TO BE EASY.”

 

So, yesterday I did one of my long runs for my marathon training preparation.  It was 18.5 miles long.  In 28-32 degrees.  After I had already had 5 hours of classes and clients.  It did not go well. 

 

I had major anxiety about this run.  It was SO NOT IDEAL.  Thursdays I’m usually EXHAUSTED.  In fact, I normally try to have Thursday as my “off day” and take a NAP in between appointments.  This week, Wednesday I wasn’t feeling well and had to actually CANCEL some of my appointments!  So, it was super debatable if I should have even tried to do this long run.  With the weather this weekend, kids sports schedules, I didn’t have much choice. 

I reminded myself of SO MUCH TRUTH in getting myself out the door:

*it is GOOD to sometimes do hard workouts ON ALREADY TIRED LEGS! 

*we can’t always expect to do our training at our most ideal times (especially when this is not our full time job!)

*I so often hear people who sign up for only flat races, only summer races, only their favorite types of things, and I Reminded myself that this was my opportunity to live out what I think is critical to our growth- that we don’t always do the things that are our favorites, easier for us, etc.  This builds character and this reminded me that I Just needed to dig deep and do the work.

I started the run and knew in the first few miles I wasn’t feeling awesome- my legs were already heavy, it was cold, I had 14,000 lbs of clothes on so I felt like a zombie trying to run anyway, but I kept a patient attitude and settled into a calm warm up. I was aiming to do an easy 4 miles for warming up with no expectations, just relax and try to not freeze.  Then I was to begin going strong.  My beginning of strong didn’t feel very strong, still so sluggish, but I cut myself some slack knowing it was uphill, windy at that point and cold.  Stayed mentally calm.  Started feeling like I could push a bit better when on the flat W and OD and a bit more shielded on those miles from the wind.  I started to feel BETTER, but also knew it was kind of being “forced.”  Mentally I was still holding so much anxiety, like “can I really do this on a Thursday after the full week and after the day I’ve already had.”  I was trying to be “in the mile I was in” but it again, was just all very forced and I was holding this tight mental frame of mind.  I could already feel about mile 7-8 that my right calf and hip were feeling the work and the pressure and pushing.    It kept building, but I tried to hang on.  I decided to turn around ½ mile earlier than I had intended to.  I didn’t want to end up so far from home in case I needed to cut something a little shorter for the health of my hip, but that being said, I also didn’t really want to do the same distance long run that I had done the week before.  That would be, in my opinion, basically wearing my body down to achieve what I had already done.  I was trying to up my distance by completing the next mile in my build.  If I didn’t get to my goal of 18.5, it would be a bigger jump to my next long run goal of 20.  When I turned around, I let myself back off my pace and regroup and earn myself a bit of positive mojo to see if I could hop back in and maintain a “strong” run up until mile 17, as was my initial plan.  After 17,  I had intended to take it easy and just GET to the 18.5 end.  This easy mile did help and I started strong again, however it just fizzled after 1.5 more miles of this.  I was frustrated, but also realizing, this is just the truth for me today.  You can only force so much.  I can only WANT to run strong so much, I cannot will my physical body to something it is just too fatigued for.   I realized I had to just use what I had left and spread that out through to the end.  I realized that it wasn’t going to be my IDEAL workout, but nonetheless, this training session could still be an important stepping stone both physically and mentally.

Mile 15 I took a 1 min walk, then ran the rest of the mile.  Mile 16 did the same thing which got me at least ALIVE to the 17 mile mark.  At that point, I had a decision to make.  Since I had turned around ½ mile early, my route back to my house would have had me finish my run 1 mile short of what my plan was… again, not progressing distance past my last long run.  Which wouldn’t be the end of the world.  HOWEVER, I didn’t think my hip (or calf) was at risk, so, I decided to suck it up, HUMBLE MYSELF, because at this point, my running looked TERRIBLE, felt terrible, and was just painful.  But I added on an extra bit of distance before getting back to my house at 18.  Again, I could have gone inside and been done at 18, but I knew my goal was 18.5, so I went up and down my street trying to go “hard” which still looked like maybe an accelerated walk/shuffle!!  And then easier back to get to my total mileage goal. Ohhhh it was rough, but I finished at 18.5.  I did it.

It was important.

NOT EVERY TRAINING DAY SHOULD BE AWESOME.

If you do NOT have a long run that MAKES YOU SUFFER SUFFER SUFFER, then there is really something WRONG frankly.  If you are not suffering in training, you WILL suffer most likely in your race.

Most of this run, I felt like it was such a non- success and disappointment.  Having completed it (and safe and back in my heated home!!!) I do now acknowledge the importance of the fight that I just gave.  It will serve me well.  This is the complete point of training- not to always go out there at the perfect time, not to always go out there and have a success, but to make tough decisions, find the most that you have on any given day, and keep showing up.

Thoughts on Inspiration

 

LACK OF INSPIRATION

As we make our way towards the end of January and we assess how we are doing in matching up our actions with our intentions for the month, it is a good time to think about our motivation levels, and more correctly, our inner inspiration.  If we have set our goals and are moving forward in the direction that we have set for ourselves, there needs to be an internal fire, a heart of inspiration.

It’s not just in the first month of a new year that we are looking for a surge in motivation and an inner fire to remain on the path that leads us in the direction of our dreams.  It is something that is always at play.   Even for people who love exercise, there are times when it seems tedious, when we feel lethargic and unmotivated.  Breaking out of a rest or recovery phase or even an “energetic rut” is sometimes the most difficult barrier as we struggle to get back INTO the groove, into our flow, into our internal inspiration and drive.  I personally find that when I am not in a training cycle, have no goal that I am signed up for, it can be so hard to prioritize something that causes short term discomfort.  *And even though I am writing this about exercise, the same can be said for whatever your goals are- business, work, creative energies, school, etc.

I heard the greatest quote one time at a conference a long time ago that said, “People don’t remain unfit because of a lack of INFORMATION, rather because of a lack of INSPIRATION.”  And we all know this, we have all felt it.  We KNOW everything we need to.  Honestly, both nutrition and exercise training and basic healthy living is not ROCKET SCIENCE.  There is nothing we need to KNOW or learn about fitness that gives us the result!  It is getting out there, being inspired and DOING IT, and doing it CONSISTENTLY.  Day to day work, committing, showing up, working through the hard times, continuing.  And this is the short term discomfort that inevitably is there for any of us, for all of us.   And it is IN this rising to face this short term discomfort that we can actually  BUILD our internal inspiration! There isn't really anything we need to KNOW, we just need to DO!

Again- we have probably all felt this at some point in our lives.  When we are not “in it”, when we can't seem to get ourselves to take action, when we feel "flat" and have nothing fueling our fire!  I used to ask my kids fitness/kids yoga classes this question when I wanted them to see the value of effort and doing hard things, “What is the easiest thing you’ve done that you are so, so proud of?!” (trick question)…. Obviously, we don’t get proud of the easy things, right?!  We get proud when we are doing the discomfort, doing the work, making things happen.  When we are IN THE ARENA—in the arena of gritty grinding work, getting dirty with the pushing!   It is once we have begun the momentum of our cycle of doing and of taking action, that we find the rewards, the feel good days (not all of them, of course!), the intrinsic fueling of our fire.   In a nutshell, sometimes, we cannot wait to be inspired to go after our goal, sometimes we need to begin going after the goal, heading in a direction in order to feel inspired.  Let’s all head straight to our mountain, whatever that mountain is for us.  And begin.

I DON'T WANNA!!!

 

I Don’t WANT TO!  I Don’t LIKE TO!!

Yes, I’m calling you out!  But I’d like to add that I’m calling myself out also!

I hear every day of things people dislike doing. 

I don’t like to:

do downdogs, run, stretch, eat healthy, drink water (me), do high intensity intervals, rest in relaxation pose at the end of yoga, do pushups, take the time to foam roll, balance, and the list goes on and on.

And, it is seemingly almost always the case that what we do not like are things that frankly are calling us, SCREAMING FOR OUR ATTENTION! These are the freaking very things we need to do MOST.

To show full disclosure that I am not harping on any of you, here are some of mine:

1.      1. Long tempo run segments.—I can do ½ mile repeats, mile repeats, hill repeats, but ask me to sustain an uncomfortable pace for 4-6 miles, ughhhhh… “I don’t wanna!”  how funny that I NEED THIS MOST.  This is the workout that makes me a better runner if I commit to doing it.

2.       2. I don’t like doing some twisting stretches because my body is like a board that way, and it is so HARD to let myself into a twist and then try to relax.  Clearly this is the THING that I am most benefitted by:  it stretches my hips/low back/all through my deep spinal muscles that are about as rigid as I can be… ugh…. We learn so much from what we resist.

3.     3.  Drinking water.  Many of you know this.  I won’t even write how little I drink per day on days when I don’t force myself to do the right thing.  (although I am currently being very diligent, aware and focused on getting it in because I know my whole life is benefitted by doing this—I won’t be happy if I don’t train well or feel well and hydration is important for both of these!)

************************************************************************

We don’t typically like things we aren’t good at, but that doesn’t mean we cannot benefit from them.  Many times that is the key to the next step- the magic of doing the “small stuff” that in reality is our limiter in life or in fitness/sport.  Even the humbling act of doing something that we don’t excel at teaches us something!  The showing up, the getting out of our comfort zone, letting go of our need for being perfect is what allows us to be fully in our process of work. 

 

If we CHOOSE to be working towards something, no matter how large or small our goal is, there will be things we do not like.  If your goal is worth it, you will do the things that aren’t your favorite.  I challenge you to make a list of 1-3-5 things that “you don’t like.”  Then ask yourself if your goal is worth making the sacrifice to do all the things.. ALL THE THINGS… even the ones you don’t like.  Something in me thinks that this makes the realization of your goal that much sweeter in the end. 

 

 

 

DON’T BE AWESOME!

Yes, you will never usually hear this from me!  Right??!!  I typically am a huge advocate of going AFTER (ALL IN!) towards your goals and dreams, right?

But, here we are in this FIRST WEEK OF THE NEW YEAR!  And I implore you to:  DO NOT BE AWESOME.

DO NOT GO ALL OUT.

BECAUSE- none of us are ready.  NO SINGLE PERSON on this earth is at their most fit on these days.  Many of us have not MOVED.  We have not reached up, we have not twisted, we have not even STOOD as much.  We have been seated more than ever.

As I write this, I am very much thinking of YOGA PRACTICE.  Do NOT expect yourself to move like you moved 2 weeks ago, if you haven’t been consistent.  And it. Is. OK. 

Take this week to re-enter.  Arrive, attend, show up, move with your breath.  Just feel, and that is ALL. This is not the time to do more.  This is not the time to try a position that previously hasn’t worked well for you- the turning of the calendar hasn’t changed that.

And then, even after this week, guess what?  For some people (MYSELF!!), yoga is my place where I remind myself EVERY TIME I arrive on my mat- do not be awesome, do not go 10/10, do not do your best, do not break barriers here.  I have learned, personally, over the years that trying to reshape my body into shapes that don’t work for me, leads to injury.  Yoga isn’t really the place for “goals.”  If you show up day after day, month after month, year after year, your body will become more balanced, flexible and strong, your mind more present, and that is the only “goal” that is needed.  This doesn’t mean that you cannot be interested and actively working on balancing on hands, in crow or handstands, or working on becoming more flexible in hips or hamstrings.  But the mindset is on the journey- the showing up and trusting the natural progression of practice.

Yoga is a great place to teach yourself to not be at 100%.  If you are a person who works on not always being at their best, being real, use your practice to do just that--- arrive, be where you are.  I challenge you to have one thing, in each yoga practice, where you “let yourself” do a modification that you might not have done.  Something “less”.  Something to remind yourself that you don’t need to always go big.  That you have the capacity to listen and follow what is right from day to day, and it doesn’t always have to be your “ultimate.”  You can learn to feel whole and complete, while being just as you are today—nothing more.  Practice a bit of “not being awesome.”!!  You heard it here😊