Today’s run thumped me, and the tiredness is deep. This is the last week before Crow Pass, and it’s the first time in a month I’ve had some focused “quality training”, and only the third time of the whole summer. I’m underprepared but also unstressed. This is an athletic summation of the last five months.
If I was asked back in Fairbanks during Distance Nationals to write down what I wanted to happen this summer, it would go like this:
I will train hard from now until Crow Pass on July 18th. I will use this incredible base to run hard, will run smart after an epic season of learning under my belt, and I will win the race and be the first person to run the 24 mile mountain race in under 3 hours. I can’t lose, and I will ride off into the sunset.
Looking back, this is how it would have read, had it been 100% correct:
I will only run 2-4 times a week until May when I’ll run 3-6 times a week. I will necessarily devote 75% of my day to hard-core family issues while stitching together an exit strategy for my career while finding a new direction. I will spend three weeks meticulously consolidating my life into a mini van, get injured and sick for four weeks, and train hard the last week. Then, I will settle for whatever’th place at Crow Pass and ride off into the sunset.
Learn this. Anyone can make a plan for success, but what’s really hard is to catch all the little lessons that go flying by while the plan is falling apart. As it played out, dealing with all the crud that came along in order to work on my insomnia problem and getting back to my fundamental motives for athletics became much more important than actual training. But diving deeper, it absolutely say it was training.
These two goals were provided some very important ground work for the more traditional goals that I would rather have trained for. I’ll admit that throwing a whole season in the toilet in the name of deep learning was really hard and totally counterintuitive, but sometimes if you want to get anywhere it has to be the logical next step. Losing sleep over races, blowing up early, striving for impossible goals, and feeling cranky and depressed for repeated failures are all possible warning signs that it’s time to work on deeper fundamentals.
To do this I went back to square one by backing off to find out what it was like to just sit on my ass without working out. For example, I made sure that I wasn’t covering up other things with excessive physical activity like an alcoholic with a bottle of scotch. In some ways workouts actually did act like Granddad’s bottle of booze, and in other ways they didn’t. I resolved to ditch the former and focus on the latter.
I also made a conscious effort to honestly re-assess what activities really made me happy, and what activities were sucking more energy than they were providing. For example, try answering this question after taking a week or two two think about it: “If you had to do one thing all day every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?” Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, I think you’d be amazed at how some people answer that question one way and then turn right around and do something else all day. My first answer was alpine skiing, hands down. I used that as a starting point and meditated on it.
Last but not least, I bit the bullet and quit my job in order to have the time to honestly answer those questions. That was by far the hardest part.
Just like those soccer kids in a Brazilian ghetto, you should be spending 90% of your athletic life psyched to all hell for that next header between the goal posts. I think If you are putting in over 20 hours a week but aren’t exactly dreaming about skipping school to train, then something’s wrong.
Personally, all I do these days is look up at the mountains and think about being surrounded by them. If I take a break from typing right now I can’t help but look up through the coffee shop window to stare at them. Sometimes I even have a hard time driving my car because I can’t stop looking for ski lines or new ridges to run. Every time I get outside it’s totally bomber and when I’m done I’m content to think about other enjoyable things like guitar and friends or family. I don’t get caught up worried about the next workout or how my tired knee is doing. That phase had it’s time and place, but now it’s time to move on.
As long as these things are in line, all the success seems to fall into place. Nice Pat – good work.
I say start growing those roots right now, and at start at a young age. If you’re older then give your juniors the opportunities to answer those questions for themselves but don’t give them your own answers. I wish I had more opportunities to think about things in this way when I was a teenager instead of just trotting around looking for an image to survive. Before you know it those juniors be writing their own training plans and sneaking their own intervals behind your back.
I woke up this morning up Canyon Road on 10.5 hours of sleep, made breakfast and played my guitar with compassion for two hours in the sun. Then I got the second gorgeous mountain run in two days, a professional 3 hour workout with 45 minutes of intensity. Tomorrow is a 7 hour hike to Eagle Glacier and Back. It’s late, I’m floored, and I truly loved it all.
The following gallery is a good example of an average day for me these days.
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