Performance and Transformation

Breaks from running are great. While I've been using this break (January) to plan out my next season of training and a new marathon goal, I'm finding the same old temptations keep rearing up - to plan too many miles with too many of them being too fast. When I've tried doing more than I can handle, it's usually after reading an article on how some elite athlete, who works part-time, is half my age, and cranks out 100+ mile weeks. After reading said article, I try too amp up the miles in March and April, but by June I'm comparing myself too the other end of the spectrum, a novice friend who is just starting. Then I just fall into the routine of four 4-milers a week, until my next big race is a month away at which point I get it into gear again. Neither end is good. Consistency is needed. To develop consistency, for the last year or so, I've been kicking these four principles around in my head and am taking them out for a test drive as I build a Plan fo...

If running isn't holy, maybe I'm not doing it right. It's got to feel special or unique. By definition, holy is to be set apart . God used the word "holy" to describe the first day of rest, and then later His people. For my running to be holy means it is set apart....it becomes more and more void of false motives or angst. In the positive sense it means freedom, ease, and enjoyment. I do it for me, and because I'm created to do it. When running isn't set apart, there is an intrinsic danger in doing it for the wrong reasons. Studies show that people who start running just to lose weight are less likely to continue running than those who run for sheer joy. Why run then? Because we are human, and we have been created to run. If we weren't, then our great-great-great ancestors never would have been able to outrun their neighbor for dinner, or run and catch dinner. More than that, God made us as physical beings. Therefore, I would co...

At about this time of the year most of us are beginning to reflet on the goals we had for the past season of running. I had been excited to use a systematic plan for the first time this last year. It helped me run faster and more efficiently than ever, getting a best time in my marathon to boot (3:35)! Because I want to run about 20 minutes faster next year, I'm in the heat of evaluation. While checking for room to improve, and accessing how I did at implementing it I've noticed that the plan was great, but I didn't always do a good job of executing it. The 5-6 time a week runs were hard for my non-runner background to keep up with in a summer of travel and a newborn. Good plan, but probably not the best one for me. I need something that will kick me into gear, but have a certain amount of flexibility and non-running activities to stave off boredom. While coming down the finish line of my September marathon, I was also finishing up Bob Fryling's " ...

"Is Running too much cheating?" a friend asked. Interesting thought. She was referring to my recent post on running to little as cheating because that's how most of us think of cheating, running too little. My brain immediately went to the Ten Commandments, not a place of Scripture I usually contemplate on issues of running. However, it makes sense that God told us too rest once a week, and he might know we need the day off. My tendency is too overwork it and run life too hard all the time. I'm most tempted to run on a day off when I haven't done the required runs already that week or month. Then I'm forced into running on days that should have been rest. But I think my friend was asking about running evenmore when the required runs have already been done. To this, I responded that this is cheating. If I run more or less than the plan, I'm cheating. Rest days give me a mental and physical break. They remind me that I am more than my given...

What if humans are pack animals? It seems like everything I do with another person gets a bit easier. I’m normally one who loves running long-distances alone. Today it was very out of character when I decided to run with the pace team in my local marathon. I wasn’t so sure at first. The group seemed a little crowded, but there was a lot of energy as we all banged out miles together. I realized about 4 miles in why I had never joined a pace team. I’m a fairly prideful person, and if I followed a pace runner it meant I couldn’t do it on my own. Once I accepted I couldn’t do my goal on my own and that I needed the other runners at my pace, I was able to concentrate on just sticking with them. Somewhere around mile 6 I started thinking of the group as a platoon, of which I was a member. I have no idea why a Platoon came to mind, maybe it’s because I finished reading Joker One two weeks ago by Donovan Campbell. It’s a great book about a platoon and i...

Racing makes all the difference. Ask most mesh short wearing, Nike sporting, sweat soaked Joe or Jane chugging down the sidewalk, “Are you a runner?” and they likely respond, “No.” That’s because racing makes all the difference. More so, training for a race makes us feel like runners. It’s not that a race is a magical event, but it does give shape and purpose to what we are doing. In those moments of training and racing, running becomes more than just a means to control weight, or more than a new hobby. With focus towards the goal of finishing a challenging distance or with a certain time, we get the gift of self-motivation. In self-motivation, we become citizens of a running sub-culture marked with the habits of perseverance and self-control. This is the place and time when someone becomes a runner. As residents of this land, we are able to get out of bed in the morning for a run. When we come home after a day packed with meetings the most restful thing w...

I love running on the weekend. There’s no schedule of places to go or things to do, just get out the door, which can be the hardest part. But once I’m out the door there is no reason to get back home, no appointments, no getting to work. Just bliss on the trail. This is especially the case when I take Esme, my 9-month-old daughter along in her Cardinal Red Joovy jogging stroller. Then I have the added bonus of having the best running partner along, and not feeling guilty about leaving my wife on her own to hold down the fort. Which is why I would not let a few threatening clouds hold Esme and I back this morning. We were going to have a little Daddy/Daughter time on our trail together. But the overcast clouds that I thought were moving further away from us, by 2 miles into an 8-miler had turned into threatening thunder then lightening moving closer to us. My first 2 miles had felt like I already ran 18. The previous day I was on my feet most of...

How does someone cheat when they are running alone? After all, who would I be cheating? It’s not as though I’m fudging points, holding a receiver, or taking a flop to draw a phantom foul that doesn’t exist. A runner cheats when they turn back earlier than planned, when they record “extra” miles, or faster miles in their running journal than truly happened. A runner cheats when they know they should do 18 miles on a long run, but only does 14. I love running in extremes. I’ve had my Camel Back freeze in February, and I’ve suffered heat exhaustion twice. My biggest temptation to cheat is when it get’s so hot I’ve got to walk to cool down, but end up walking further than I really needed to or told myself I would. Only I know when I’ve cheated. I know when I haven’t done the miles I wanted, or the workout I had planned. Come race day I’ve noticed two things happen when I’ve been cheating. As I line up to run, there’s a nagging insecurity in my gu...

I have two favorite places to run. I love running in the deep woods of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, along the shore of Lake Huron - just outside Cedarville. The other is on the mountainside of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Oloitokitok, Kenya. On the secluded trails of Michigan, my introverted nature basks in often seeing more deer than people. By contrast, in an African country that respects running and those who do it, rambling along at 5,000+ feet of elevation, as a 6 foot tall white man going down secluded streets and countryside, I receive more thumbs up, clapping, and smiles than I will see other white people. It’s like doing a training run with crowd support. When I run in these locations, I have to restrain myself from going out twice a day, or running further than I should. When I’m in Michigan or Oloitokitok it feels like a running honeymoon. The everyday six-miler has the potential to become my own Walden Pond. Rece...

Ever watch a Kenyan run? Most of us have only had this pleasure if we’ve had the misfortune of being committed to watching a back of the pack marathon runner and we see the Kenyans with their East African brethren zip by while we wait and wait. I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of Kenyans run. In my nine or ten visits to Kenya, I’ve rarely seen the average Kenyan run for recreation or health reasons. By contrast, many Americans run because we feel guilty about last night’s dessert or double-bacon cheeseburger. I’ve seen Kenyans run because they are VERY late for work, VERY late for school, or are playing soccer. Even the ones who look least athletic have the same gate as the few I have seen who are obviously VERY good at it. The latter run like gazelles, hovering over the ground. But both run like boys and girls who learned to run without shoes. 1 Meaning, they aren’t cloggers. They don’t bow their heads beaten and low, slam their hee...