Posted by We often hear the reminder “life is a marathon, not a sprint”. The misconception of the statement is that it is not telling you not to sprint. Instead, it is telling you to manage your energy, as eventually you will need to sprint, and other times you need to recover. So it is more about knowing when you need to do one or the other, by listening to your body and by having perspective on the circumstances around you. What do I mean by that?
Lessons from Marathon Training
Don’t be deceived, I have done no marathon in my life. I am but the wife of someone who likes to run and has done 4 marathons, with the training that it entails. Well, I guess he really trained for 3 after he almost collapsed on the first one. So my lessons come from observation rather than self-empirical evidence.
- Training is key – that is an obvious one, but what it means in real life is that you need to be take care of yourself, in a consistent manner. You can’t discard the part where you take care of your body, be it with healthy eating, regular exercise, medical check-ups. Because if you do want your life to be an ultra-marathon, you need to have the foundation to get you there, and not just in the couple of months running up to the marathon, ideally it is a form of life. I clearly live my life as multiple marathons a year, so this rule is even more important. Believe me, I tried not to put much into it or to pretend like I had what it took, and it was OK for quite a while, but it did not always go well. There have been a few walls. (especially because I used to sprint during marathon times)
- Embrace Challenges – clearly, someone training for a marathon is looking to embrace challenges. But the real challenges are the ones we are not expecting. In training, as in life, the path is not always clear and not all variables can be predicted. Whilst there is a lot you can train for, you need to be ready to adjust course, stop, speed, refuel or even pause at different times.
- Rest is part of training – the rule is to rest one day per week, especially as you get closer to D-day. Not because you can’t run, but because it is good for your body. The muscles need it to recover. Rest is an important part of life too, even if we often like to think of it for the weak of body or mind. I am personally not a good “rester”. I don’t make it a priority, and there is always something I could be doing. But in recent years I have observed the wonders of rest in me – my immune system improved, my energy levels are slowly climbing, and more importantly, ideas spike through the roof. Rest is what makes us stronger, not weaker!
- You can do more than you think – it’s funny I would say that, as for years this was my answer whenever people asked me how ‘I do it all’. I guess that part of me has not changed. I do have the utmost belief that I can do most things I set my mind to, if I really go for it. It is also a way of saying that I can make my body (and soul) endure greater levels of pain than potentially advisable. I am not recommending you go David Goggins style (be my guest if that is your thing), but I do recognise we are often faint of hard and give up right when things get hard.
Hamster wheel in motion
Everyone I talk to seems to think the world is moving faster. Hell, I always thought that but then again I would bargain my way into a 30 hour day in exchange with the people that are perfectly fine to have only 18 hours in theirs, with ample time to eat, sleep, do some work and hang out. But in a certain way, the environment we are in seems to be moving faster as well.
In London, I could tell I was running on the wheel but then again everyone was, so there was little to be made out of it. Isn’t that what you do if you are working in finance in London at that stage in life? The 11-hour days are much shorter than they ever were in the beginning years, so you are almost led to believe you have slowed down. In reality, you are only doing more in less time. The intensity levels go through the roof. But you can’t see it, as everyone does the same.
When I moved to Lisbon, I was hoping I would get the environment change kick in immediately. I kind of new I needed a shock to change my course. I was wrong. Commuting for 2 years just made me go even faster. And barely looking around. It took a while for me to finally start adjusting my speed, and looking out for my surroundings in a different way. In London, I started slowing down, using the alone time to rest, socialize or just ground myself. In Lisbon, I would run at speed but pull the handbrake on weekends to regain composure for another round. Over tine, I realized the conditions were no longer what worked for me and my body was not up for it anymore. But it took longer than needed, because the majority of the time, I was just focused on training my body further to be part of the environment.
In his first marathon, Hubby B had a significant change in circumstances, and one that he did not assess well. He had been practicing in London fall weather, high single digits temperature mostly. And Lisbon had a hot sunny day for his first run – by the time he was hitting the half marathon, it was well over 25 degrees. Whilst he was not new to Lisbon weather, that was just not how he used to run. He focused on the body and gave little thought to the environment, not adjusting speed and water intake accordingly. You can guess how that went.
Read the signals
Overall, marathon training makes you more aware of your body, your limits, your pains. If you are lucky, you get through training enough to even run a marathon one day. But done properly, it means you learn about the environment too. If you give it the 6 months consistent training it deserves, you will try different weathers and hopefully different terrains. You will experience different moments of your body too.
The idea is, you can start reading through. One of the most proud days I had of Hubby B, was one day he stopped his 30k run early. He could tell he was suddenly in pain and something was not right. He read the signs and probably earned himself a slot on yet another marathon. No doubt it also gave him a bit more peace in his marriage. A few years back he had been very unwell during one of the 30k practice runs, no phone and no food. I gave him a hard time. The only way I could support it was if he read the signs. He got better.
I am quite an expert at ignoring the signs. More often than not, I do it by deliberately closing my eyes. I rarely claim ignorance. But I have come to terms that signs can only be ignored so far. Maybe in a 5k run. Not a marathon. And certainly not in life.
Push when you need to (and you can)
I already said I was never a long-distance runner. Gosh, I can’t imagine the amount of things that would go through my mind in a single 10k. Audiobooks and music could probably not save me from my own mind.
Having said that, I decided I had to change my ways and be less about speed and more about consistency. I have spent the last year reprogramming my brain, and whilst I have done progress, I have a good way to go. More often than not, I take breaks, i go out to breakfast with a mum from school, I go out to lunch, I read a book before bed. I still need to be very intentional about it. But it has been a key part of energy building.
And when I really need a push (like I did again in the last 2 weeks), the energy is there and the mind is fresher than if you are doing constant late nights. I did long “runs” into the evening last week, and I pushed like the world was ending. Luckily, the world did not end, but luckily I also felt like I still had it in me. In fact, I had it much better than before, as I have now been through the lessons of taking care of body, adjusting as needed and resting. And that is when you can indeed do more than you ever thought.
Enjoy the ride
Earlier this year, Hubby B did his fourth marathon, in Madrid. The difference was notable, in his physical and mental ability. He read somewhere that he would spend less energy smiling than frowning. So he tried to approach the course with a smile. At every step of the way that we cheered him on (me and the kids also did 17k steps that day following him around), he looked like he was enjoying himself. He finished with a smile of pride, but most importantly, of joy. He took it easier at times, but he also pushed when he needed to. Balance was achieved. There was space for joy (and perhaps yet another marathon in the horizon). Lessons working.