I’m currently sitting on our front porch, enjoying a cold drink, and loving the cool breeze and comfortable temperature. I’ve spent a good majority of my time out here this weekend, and it’s been the perfect opportunity to relax, catch up on some reading, and bask in what I hope is not a short-lived spring/early summer season. It’s a nice balance between knowing I need to get things done around the house, and wanting to spend all my time outdoors. If I could hit the pause button on the weather and time of day, then I’m pretty sure this is when I’d do so. Do you have those moments when everything clicks and you just want to bask in the relaxation? Are you making the time to go to your happy place and pause to truly enjoy it? The miles fly by rather quickly and it’s easy to get caught up in the training, and sometimes it just takes someone handing you a cold drink to force your hand!
Do you have your cold drink? 🙂
Chasing42 Log: 20170527- 20170604
Run: It’s taper time in the #chasing42 world, and that means less volume and a slower pace. Over the past week or so, I’ve managed to stick to a slower pace, although my volume hasn’t necessarily decreased as much as I would have liked. In my defense, it’s been rather gorgeous outside for the last week. In addition, last week was a 3-day weekend, which meant an extra opportunity for a long run. I kept things slower, and have been rolling my legs out consistently, so now I just need to reign in the miles. I kept my weekend mileage low this weekend, thankfully, and did plenty of stretching. I am sure it will be even easier to do so this coming week before heading up to PA for Laurel Highlands. Here’s to a calm race week!
Thought: The bonk. The breaking point. The “that’s all I’ve got” point. We’ve all been there. We’ve all felt the life drain from our body as we realize that we didn’t consume enough calories, drink enough, or properly account for the climate or terrain. We’ve reached our mental threshold and begun making deals with ourselves. If I let myself walk to “x location”, then I’ll pick it back up again. If I take it easy until the next aid station, then I can stock up and hit it hard again. In some ways, that mentality has become crucial to my ability to push myself into and out of the pain cave, and really challenge what I’m capable of enduring. However, I’m also aware that the mind tends to give up faster than the body does. We, as a society, are not accustomed to discomfort in our daily lives (many of us, anyway), and thus our ideas about where that threshold rests have changed over the years. Today, the average American only takes approximately 5900 steps, which includes those trips to the bathroom and to the break room for one more donut. Those 3 miles aren’t typically difficult miles by any means, and it’s drastically alternated our perception of how far we can push ourselves.
Of course, runners of all sorts certainly don’t fall into those sedentary categories the same way, but it has still altered the way we mentally perceive pain and exhaustion, the way we talk about it, and the way we view it in others. Thus, I find myself, as I tackle new and unique physical challenges, thinking about how I can push myself to go just a little bit harder, just a little bit longer, and push aside those mental doubts just a bit more. Training is ultimately about growth, and that happens on a mental and physical level. So, the next time i perceive a bonk coming on, or start making deals with myself early in a race, I’m going to try and repeat #chasing42 in my mind and push just a little bit more. Do you have it in you to push just a little bit more? Let’s see what happens!
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