Coming of age
"Just wait until you're my age, kid.."
A phrase that is used and abused, one that sends shockwaves down my spine as nails on a chalkboard, yet a phrase that unfortunately carries some truth.
Growing up as athletes, it's like we're blessed with endless energy and our days are non stop. Heavy weights in the gym, pick up basketball for a few hours, come home, shower and then head out until late night. Maybe eat some junk food past midnight, get to sleep late, wake up and do it again. You're invincible with hardly any color under your eyes.
Somewhere in your late 20s, at least for me, but many others alike, you start to take a second look at your life's shenanigans and wonder how you can better utilize time, and more importantly, rest.
The idea of overtraining or going too hard wasn't even a thought until almost 29. I jumped into Half Marathon training, and too my ignorant surprise, I was terribly run down and my vitals had shown it. Coaching HS Track, beginning a new career after a few months of questioning "WTF is next," mixed with a winter of heavy weight training and every run turning into a tempo-threshold effort had me broken.
During a physical, my BP and heart rate were elevated. I've always had a strong, slow pulse along with good BP, so the Dr looked at me, "what's going on?" I proceeded to wrap up my last 6 months for him, and he went, "slowwww it down my friend." He had a few words of caution about life and exercise stress accumulating and told me I needed a couple rest days if not rest the entire week. So, what did I do? I immediately left the DR's, drank some water and a few splashes of caffeine, and attempted to run 12 miles...god help me.
Needless to say, I bonked terribly on that run. The day before I was at a 12 hour long track meet, did a heavy tempo run that Friday afternoon, and was probably dehydrated as that Saturday afternoon was pure blue sunny skies. I bonked so hard that I actually walked 1 mile back to my car. In all my years in athletics, that moment was top 5 humbling. I vowed to become smarter with my approach, and refused to be a casualty of overtraining and health issues later on in life.
I ended up running my first HM 2 weeks later, and while I did bonk terribly the last 5k, I went into the race feeling re energized and optimistic about what lied ahead. The death march could also be highly credited to basketball shorts, thick black cotton t shirt, and a severe lack of cumulative miles from the previous 6 months. I still held onto sub 8 minute pace until mile 9. I was inspired.
In the last 2 years, I've studied the sport of endurance running. Oddly enough, the same passion I carried as a HS football player, has now manifested itself into running and longevity. I've befriended an elite runner who has a wealth of knowledge and experience that I've been inspired by. His down to earth approach and love for what running has given him is what it's all about in my eyes.
I am guilty of posting training updates and for some who don't run, it probably looks like bragging. I understand. From the bottom of my heart, that's never been my intent. I love social media for how it bridges the gap, connects like minds and if done correctly, can provide daily doses of inspiration and creativity. However, our social media exploits can be displayed in a way that's a turn off.
Our evolution with technology integrated into our daily lives, with live streams, instantaneous updates is actually a very new thing for our society. Go back 10 years ago, and the way we communicated was much, much different. I am growing more conscious with every share. With great power, comes great responsibility. That's a great analogy for social media and our displays.
If you were to sift through my profile going back over 5 years now, it's a random collection of everything under the sun. I've grown my transparent with diabetes and running, but let me assure you, that's been my life longgg before instagram or any platform hit the scene.
I've read some articles and listened to some thought loops recently about how the structure of social media use has aspiring runners looking at others and trying to over compensate for their lack of monthly miles or paces on long runs. Basically trying to one up the next guy on every run, doing too much. I am not on strava for that matter, and would rather share a sweet section of the trail with some tunes vs showing my pace that quite frankly, maybe 5% of my followers might give two shits about.
I live for the moment, but I also keep in mind, life is cumulative. I had to learn the hard way that your body can't decipher the different stressors your everyday takes on. Whether through too many hard efforts on the trails, the long commute and job toll, or beginning a new family with disrupted sleep, it all adds up.
Sure, life is easy when you're 21. Drink all night, eat McDonald's, hit the gym the next day, sweat profusely, eat some food and do it all over again. As a once man once said, "this too shall pass." Slowing down my efforts might sound contradicting to improve running, but it will hopefully give me the gift of longevity and perspective as each year passes.
Best wishes and much love to all,
Andrew
A phrase that is used and abused, one that sends shockwaves down my spine as nails on a chalkboard, yet a phrase that unfortunately carries some truth.
Growing up as athletes, it's like we're blessed with endless energy and our days are non stop. Heavy weights in the gym, pick up basketball for a few hours, come home, shower and then head out until late night. Maybe eat some junk food past midnight, get to sleep late, wake up and do it again. You're invincible with hardly any color under your eyes.
Somewhere in your late 20s, at least for me, but many others alike, you start to take a second look at your life's shenanigans and wonder how you can better utilize time, and more importantly, rest.
The idea of overtraining or going too hard wasn't even a thought until almost 29. I jumped into Half Marathon training, and too my ignorant surprise, I was terribly run down and my vitals had shown it. Coaching HS Track, beginning a new career after a few months of questioning "WTF is next," mixed with a winter of heavy weight training and every run turning into a tempo-threshold effort had me broken.
During a physical, my BP and heart rate were elevated. I've always had a strong, slow pulse along with good BP, so the Dr looked at me, "what's going on?" I proceeded to wrap up my last 6 months for him, and he went, "slowwww it down my friend." He had a few words of caution about life and exercise stress accumulating and told me I needed a couple rest days if not rest the entire week. So, what did I do? I immediately left the DR's, drank some water and a few splashes of caffeine, and attempted to run 12 miles...god help me.
Needless to say, I bonked terribly on that run. The day before I was at a 12 hour long track meet, did a heavy tempo run that Friday afternoon, and was probably dehydrated as that Saturday afternoon was pure blue sunny skies. I bonked so hard that I actually walked 1 mile back to my car. In all my years in athletics, that moment was top 5 humbling. I vowed to become smarter with my approach, and refused to be a casualty of overtraining and health issues later on in life.
I ended up running my first HM 2 weeks later, and while I did bonk terribly the last 5k, I went into the race feeling re energized and optimistic about what lied ahead. The death march could also be highly credited to basketball shorts, thick black cotton t shirt, and a severe lack of cumulative miles from the previous 6 months. I still held onto sub 8 minute pace until mile 9. I was inspired.In the last 2 years, I've studied the sport of endurance running. Oddly enough, the same passion I carried as a HS football player, has now manifested itself into running and longevity. I've befriended an elite runner who has a wealth of knowledge and experience that I've been inspired by. His down to earth approach and love for what running has given him is what it's all about in my eyes.
I am guilty of posting training updates and for some who don't run, it probably looks like bragging. I understand. From the bottom of my heart, that's never been my intent. I love social media for how it bridges the gap, connects like minds and if done correctly, can provide daily doses of inspiration and creativity. However, our social media exploits can be displayed in a way that's a turn off.
Our evolution with technology integrated into our daily lives, with live streams, instantaneous updates is actually a very new thing for our society. Go back 10 years ago, and the way we communicated was much, much different. I am growing more conscious with every share. With great power, comes great responsibility. That's a great analogy for social media and our displays.
If you were to sift through my profile going back over 5 years now, it's a random collection of everything under the sun. I've grown my transparent with diabetes and running, but let me assure you, that's been my life longgg before instagram or any platform hit the scene.
I've read some articles and listened to some thought loops recently about how the structure of social media use has aspiring runners looking at others and trying to over compensate for their lack of monthly miles or paces on long runs. Basically trying to one up the next guy on every run, doing too much. I am not on strava for that matter, and would rather share a sweet section of the trail with some tunes vs showing my pace that quite frankly, maybe 5% of my followers might give two shits about.
I live for the moment, but I also keep in mind, life is cumulative. I had to learn the hard way that your body can't decipher the different stressors your everyday takes on. Whether through too many hard efforts on the trails, the long commute and job toll, or beginning a new family with disrupted sleep, it all adds up.
Sure, life is easy when you're 21. Drink all night, eat McDonald's, hit the gym the next day, sweat profusely, eat some food and do it all over again. As a once man once said, "this too shall pass." Slowing down my efforts might sound contradicting to improve running, but it will hopefully give me the gift of longevity and perspective as each year passes.
Best wishes and much love to all,
Andrew
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