People are always saying "listen to your body"....I'm just wondering when my body is going to listen to me. It seems unreasonable for me to always listen to its demands and for it to never fall in line with my wishes. For instance I would like to have just one week that I can run and not feel some kind of nagging pain or injury. That wish has gone unfulfilled since I began running thirteen years ago.
One quote that I always think about when my body starts complaining to me goes something like this: "Listen to my body! If I listened to my body I would be on the couch eating bon bons." How true. In fact most of the population listens to their bodies a little too well I think. Besides I think fighting against my body's wishes is the single thing that I love most about running. It separates the quick from the ordinary. Even when you are feeling healthy your body tries to get you to ease up during a tough effort. The mind control that it takes to push your body beyond that comfort zone is what turns an okay time into a new personal best.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that in the end....your body is not your friend. In fact it might be the biggest enemy of your running. Therefore you must treat it as such. You have to mislead it the best you can by giving it what it needs to operate but then trick it into giving you back much more. It won't give you control easily....you'll have to work at it. Another favorite quote of mine that I heard at my store's running camp a few years ago says, "pain has to be practised." That is probably the best training advice that I've ever heard.
Forgive my sinister view of a runner's body, but I haven't been getting along with mine this training season. I've had two pretty bad foot pains that have come, gone, come and kind of gone. It's hard to hit 20 mile plus runs when you can barely walk. I tend to run through more injuries than your average person and usually it turns out okay. I have never had any stress fractures that I know of and no major surgeries.
Obviously I am exagerating a little to get my point across. I still miss the occasional training session. I still stretch, ice and get massages and what not. So you still need to "listen to your body" I guess. I just think most runners are tuned in too much to the whims of the flesh. We should consider our bodies' opinions, but in the end make the choice for ourselves. We also always need to keep in mind....our body can be our worst enemy.
Self mastery has been an ancient theme and the Greek philosophers knew that the main enemy in their pursuits was their own body and more specifically the desires of the body. An inner battle ensues and the victor is either the self (person and character) or the body (desire and evil).
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately running is one of those things that takes us into what my friend called the "uncomfortable." I believe the more familiar quote by Lombardy or someone is "pain makes cowards of us all." Those true champions are those who can not only rise above their own pain, but to those who can do that when realizing that their victory comes in being able to take more of that pain than the next guy.
In high school, and now, people always used to say to me that I made running look so easy. Fortunately for my races the other runners could not see inside my head where I was usually trying to make it to the half way point in the race before dropping out. I rarely did drop out or stop the race, but how false it was for them to think that I was dealing with less pain. I was actually dealing with more!
If only I could push myself past the pain thresh holds like I used to be able to do so before. But now I guess I like pain even less than I did before.
the last comment was not Bryan - another Breakaway employee and his brother...
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