Final run
Yesterday, 10 days before the race, I decided that it would be my final run. It was without incident and I clocked in 13.5km at a slow pace. I couldn’t help but think about getting injured or my right leg starting to hurt or give me discomfort. It’s(the lower part of my right leg) my Achille’s heel and has contributed to at least one failed race because I overtrained and pushed too hard. That’s something that is always hard to discipline yourself with – when to tell yourself to slow down or stop and give your body a rest. However, I’ve spoken in a previous post about how the results come from praising the process.
It’s too late for progress
Even now as I sit and think of the next 8 days leading up to the race it’s hard for me to imagine not running for that long. I’ve been so tuned in to getting runs in per weekly basis that I am definitely going to feel like I’m regressing instead of healing and resting for the big event. It’s so counterintuitive to sit and wait and rest when all I have been doing for so many months is the total opposite. But the reality is that there is no more progress to be made and not any additional training will hurt my event day fitness than actually improve it. I believe that happens in other aspects of our life and in English we call it the point of diminishing returns. That point, is hovering over many endeavors but is elusive to us. The only reason I know it for running is because in this instance I was advised by a friend a fellow runner -unfortunately that’s not the case most of the time.
Track less, run more
It’s my biggest criticism about runners. So many, try to turn it into a data and analytics game and I feel like it takes away from the experience completely. Why use a calendar with all my runs scheduled and then measure my steps, cadence, VO2 Max, ascent, descent, distance, mileage, pace, laps and on and on it goes. It’s exhausting and makes us believe that we can gain an advantage taking part in fierce competition, when in actuality it’s distracting us from trying to find joy in the activity. Innovation has tricked us in believing that the analytics enhance the experience but actually the opposite is true they turn it into a chore, a bore and repetitive. My approach has almost always been to just feel the rhythm of my breath and listen to my body as I move and focus on the present moment as much as possible. That’s beauty of it really, when you let go of all the stats and stop tracking and just run. That mentality is what I want to take into the race though I have a timed goal because it is a race after all, I simply want to just run and enjoy the atmosphere, because who knows if I’ll ever do it again.
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