3 Ways To Ruin Your Running
Plus 2 Ways To Make It Better
There are so many ways that you can ruin your running. In no way is the following list meant to be an exhaustive one. I’m only writing about three ways you can ruin your running! I don’t even mention things like wearing shoes that are too big or too small. I could have brought up thinking you need to count your strides so you know when to breathe as a way to ruin your running. I didn’t. Not because it wouldn’t fit. I just had other things to do. Neither did I write about believing you can’t enjoy a delicious Dunkin’ Donuts breakfast at 5:40 AM in Logan Airport because it will screw up your running. Nonsense! Hogwash! Poppycock!
These are just three ways that you can ruin your running I felt like writing about. Besides, now I can basically recycle this post with new ways to ruin your run when I’m in a jam and need to write another newsletter. So, without any further ado here are 3 Ways To Ruin Your Running… Plus 2 Ways To Make It Better.
Tell Yourself You’re Not A Runner
Can we just not? Seriously. It’s ridiculous. And it’s boring. You run… you’re a runner. Don’t make me go to my dictionary. I can’t begin to tell you how many people tell me they’re not (real) runners. Sure, they run pretty consistently. They do road races occasionally. Maybe a 10K here and a half marathon there. Maybe even a marathon or six of them. They even know the name of the model of trainers they like to wear! You know how hard it is these days to remember the name of the trainers you wear?
You’re a runner! Get over yourself! There is no pace or distance or length of shorts you need to wear to be a runner. Don’t get me wrong. I know that stating you are in fact a runner can be scary. You’re worried. You think all those “real” runners will judge you and the verdict will find you guilty of fraud. Let me fill you in on a few things. No one… literally no one… judges you more harshly than yourself. And once you cross a starting line with a stride instead of a step… anyone that says you are not a runner is a liar.
So, let’s cut this out. Not only are you robbing yourself of some badass accolades that you have earned with every run you’ve done but you are also diminishing who you are. And a diminished person will find it harder to shine. Why would you self sabotage yourself like that? Don’t answer that. There is no valid answer.
The best running isn’t about the numbers on your watch or phone. Becasue they don’t tell the story. Those numbers can only tell you how far, how fast, how long, how many strides the story was. The best running is about achieving what you need from the run. You need an easy run after a tough day… then running easy is great running. You need to challenge yourself with a hard effort? Then running hard and pushing yourself is a great run. You need to a run to reconnect with your friends or community? Then going for a run and talking and laughing and arguing is a great run. I didn’t need to mention how long or how fast the runs were to qualify them as great runs. So, you don’t need to use those metrics to qualify yourself as a runner. And I grabbed the dictionary anyway. You know what running is defined as? The action of a runner. No mention of pace, distance, duration of style of split shorts.
Those are the facts. Deal with it, Runnerd.
Use Running As A Punishment
Running should not be about punishing yourself. It’s about pushing yourself. It’s about challenging yourself. Not chastising yourself. Don’t use the sport as an excuse to be an asshole to yourself either. It’s not meant to be a means to humiliate or degrade. Running is not penance. It’s not a penalty. Running is not meant to make you feel bad about who you are! Running is about become more wholly you! Running is not about erasing who you are.
It’s about celebrating who you are and not who you were or who you hope to be. Because it’s only the runner here and now that can run. The runner you are is the only one that can make their way to the starting line. The runner here and now is the one that launches themselves over the line… that lands and takes off and land and takes off again. Yes, we can be informed by who you were yesterday or last week or five years ago. And yes, we can be inspired by who you hope to be tomorrow. But we can only invest in a run with who you are today.
So embrace and celebrate the runner running. And you can do that by making sure the run your running is not being used as a punishment. Let the run be a gift. Running is after all about gaining things. Not losing things.
Make Running Complicated
Running isn’t complicated. It not. It’s just not. Look, I’m a running coach and I’m telling you that running… is… not… complicated. Seems like a silly thing to say if I’m concerned about job security. I can’t lie to you though. Lying screws up the foundation we need with this coach/athlete relationship thing we got going on. But, I do need to tell you that even though running is not complicated… runners sure are. And therein lies my job security. Because I know that runners make running complicated. They just can’t help it. It’s just what we do as humans. Just think about how uncomplicated the world should be. But we screw it all up trying to show how much smarter we are than the world around us. We overthink just about everything. And when the right answer is often the simplest we more often then not shun it or at least don’t trust it. Same rules apply to running.
Why else would we ignore how we feel on a run? Why else would we believe that how a run goes is a perfect representation of who we are? Why else would we spend so many waking minutes trying to figure out the perfect number of meter, minutes or miles to run today so we can feel perfect for our long run that must be run at a specific pace over a specific distance in a specific amount of time? Do we eat at 50 minutes or 53 minutes into our 120 minute long run? Wait… maybe we should drink at 50 minutes and 53 minutes and eat at 47 minutes and 56 minutes! I’m getting confused. Ugh. Now I’ve lost track of which step I breathe out on and which step I breathe in on. I’ve forgotten how to breathe!
Stop the madness! You know how to run! You know how to breathe! You will never have perfect form! You’re never going to only have great runs no matter how many articles you read about double threshold days. And no, I have no idea what percentage of your runs should be in Zone 3 or Zone 2 or spent in man to man full court defense. Good gracious.
Let’s play a little game. Let’s imagine a very complicated day of running for someone. I’m going to coach them through that “complicated” day of running.
Hey athlete! Today is supposed to be hard speed run. Intervals. 4 x 400, 2 x 800, 4 x 400, 4 x 200. Got it? Great. Now tell me how you’re feeling? Crappy? Why? Charlene dumped you last night? Oof. Sorry. Were you up all night? You were? Okay. Crying? Makes sense. You were definitely dating way up the ladder with Charlene. She’s pretty awesome. Alright. What were you hoping to run today… the speed run… it ain’t happening. Nope. No way. That’s out. And an easy run is now in. 40 minutes tops. How about this… you can only go 40 minutes if you back off… way off on the pace. Like back off enough that you can maintain your form while you cry on the run and also be aware of your surroundings so you don’t accidentally run into a tree because of the tears clouding your vision. Was that a smile? No? Didn’t think so. Or… or… you can run way less minutes at your normal easy run pace. Like 20-25 minutes. Either way, we’re not doing a speed run today. No way.
And when you’re done with the recovery run I want you with me… right with me… like literally next to me helping to time the speed run that everyone else is doing. You need to be around the team right now. And we want to be around you. You’re not alone. That’s going to be the most important part of your “recovery” today. Got it? Good. Now listen… you’re going to be fine. You hear me? I see you rolling your eyes. You don’t need to believe me right now. You just need to believe I’m going to be right some day.
There. That’s it. What… do… you… need from the run? What… do… you… need from running? Then do the run that gives the runner what the runner needs. Everything else is logistics. Speed runs, easy runs, long runs, a few strides, some strength work and a few drills. Get some good sleep. Laugh a lot. Be a good teammate and coach and friend to yourself. And remember that you are always good enough to get better.
2 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR RUNNING BETTER
Let Your Running Be About More Than Running
I’m a numbers geek. I love stats. Metrics? Sign me up. But I’d never be silly enough to measure the merits of a run strictly by metrics that are only measured in numbers. That’s just straight tomfoolery! You’ll never run as far as you could if you only measure success by the distance you’re running. You’ll never run as fast as you could if you’re only measuring the success of your run by the pace you run.
If you want to get more your of your running then your running needs to be about more.
I once spent the better part of a decade trying to run one mile as fast as I could. And I ran some fast miles. Some people may even consider them very fast. But I could have run faster. It wasn’t because of the coaching that I didn’t run as fast as I could have or should have. I was blessed with one extraordinary coach after another. It wasn’t a lack of miles or meters or minutes that I ran. I ran thousands and thousands of miles chasing my fastest mile.
The problem was that all too often I was running for only one reason - cover 1609 meters in under 240 seconds. I wasn’t running to relax after a crappy day. I wasn’t running to just hang out and talk with my teammates. I wasn’t running to enjoy the places where I lived… New Jersey… North Carolina… California. I wasn’t running to get away from it all for a few minutes when I needed to be alone. I wasn’t running to be a part of something bigger than myself. I was running for one purpose and one purpose only. I wanted to run a fast mile.
I would have run faster if I had been running all those minutes and meters and miles to run a fast mile AND deal with stress AND laugh with friends AND feel powerful AND explore the natural beauty of the Jersey Shore and Chapel Hill and northern California AND celebrate my ability to move AND just have fun playing running.
We are surrounded by excuses to not run. If you want to really run as best as you can then you’re going to need to surround yourself with excuses to run. And you can do that by measuring the success of your run as many ways as you can. Let your running be about more than how fast or how far or how long. Let the success of your running be about more than the numbers on your watch or some clock. Because if you can let your running be about more than just running then your running can help you get better at more than just running! And you’ll run better too.
Try To Do Something You Might Not Be Able To Do
When’s the last time you tried to do something that you probably couldn’t do? If the answer isn’t very recently then I want you to challenge yourself to take on a challenge that you might not be able to achieve. Maybe that means you set a time goal for a certain distance or set a distance goal for a certain run. Is it a stretch to say that you’ll achieve it? If the answer is yes then you just set yourself up for a potential failure. Awesome!
I didn’t say you were going to fail. I just said you might. And that is awesome! Because it’s exciting! You think all those badass butterflies swarm around guarantees? Heck no! Those butterflies don’t care about guarantees. They only show up when the unknown is lurking around. Nobody gets nervous when they know things are going to work out or know that things won’t workout. It’s that little itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny sliver of maybe that gets you nervous. Maybe you will. Maybe you won’t. I like those odds. And I respect the person lining up knowing that they might fail.
Yes, even if they do the work and try their best… they still might fail.
It’s not success that makes you a badass. It’s knowing that what you are trying to do might not work out but you are willing to try your best anyway that makes you a badass. So invite those butterflies into your life again. Tell them to meet you at the starting line. Embrace them. And remember that being nervous doesn’t mean you can’t. Being nervous means you care.
About That First Run…
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Do You Need To Do More To Get Better?
Yeah, probably.
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Cheers,
Coach Bennett
That first bit really could have been written about me! I did the Cambridge HM at the weekend, every time I posted on the HM Facebook page I felt like I shouldn't be there, every would know I'm not a real runner....I was in the last 70 finishers, but I did it. It was hard but I got round. Had to walk some, but I finished. I know what you would say to me...
Thank you to everyone who read the post! Cheers to all of you!