The Experience of Running

How much time is spent contemplating, analyzing, and documenting details of our schedules where it creates more confusion than clarity? A running schedule is simple: what day to run, how many miles, totals for the week, indication of run type...that's it...basic.

Coming off my STL half marathon, I am not devestated, disposed to quitting, or ready to settle for one race a year. In fact, I am more motivated to hurt, to feel the pain that running provides to my mind and body, and figure out how to make myself, as a runner, better. So, this is the plan:

1 long run a week (13 - 25 miles)
2 tempo runs (5 - 10 miles)
1 hill sprint run (5 miles)
1 barefoot run (2 - 4 miles)

And it is not the process of defining what these runs are, it is the effort that I need to take with each one of them. Simply running the distance does not work (ergo STL). But, pushing harder up the hills, giving into my breathing instead of forcing easier breathes, and sticking to the distance will work. Why? Because it teaches pain management. If this lesson could be transferred from working everyday, I would be a world-class runner. We all would. Sadly, pain management is non-transferrable.

So, when you run, make it count. Earn the downhill by charging up the hill. This isn't my plan...it's my rule. And much later after my body has learned it's lesson and is moving to the next level, will my mind begin to catch up.

The schedule is the shopping list, the workout the trip to the market. The race is my dinner, and the entire experience is the reward. Because running isn't about the medal or buckle, or crossing the finish line...it's about the experience. And the experience is running in the cold and heat, buying shoes, learning about GU, choking on water during the run, learning to blow your nose again, getting nipple rash, pinning on the bib, bounding down the road, calling yourself names, congratulating yourself, crossing the finish line again, wearing the medal, reading the posted results, and then doing it all over again.

Maybe I will run farther tomorrow...better check my running schedule.