Listen and learn

I ran the moose is loose on Sunday July 19. I have to say it’s one of my favorite runs. The trail meanders along the beautiful Edmonton river valley. My sanctuary. This one is a must-race if you enjoy trail running.

I love the feeling when you give it your all to finish a race. You look back thinking that there wasn’t anything during the run that you could have done better. You left it all on the trail.

Sometimes, I don’t get that feeling, but that’s ok too. I love listening and learning to what my body is capable of during a marathon and how it recovers. I find in the recovery, I am able to witness the effectiveness of my training and I get to reflect on if I have been structuring my preparation properly.

Some people can start out of the gate in a sprint and maintain a competitive pace throughout the race. I am not that person. If I start fast, I fatigue out pretty abruptly around the 10 to 15km mark. However, after making this mistake a few times, I have listened and learned to respect my body. I am aware what it takes for me to run more efficiently.

However, through the thickness of the crowd passing me after the starting line, I had to depress the temptation of keeping up with them and allow my body to adjust and pick up the pace; which is usually around the 5km mark. Even with a pre-warm up, I use this time as an extended warm up because my body needs some time to adjust to all the excitement of the race. Can you relate? There are lessons to be learned in every race.

Here are some preparatory questions to ask yourself as you prepare for your next endeavor…

Looking back, what have you learned from your body about your running? Are you respecting it?

How do you respond to your running?

Do you look back on your last race and think I started to strong and died out half way?

Did you cramp up because you didn’t properly fuel yourself?

Did I have fun or leave with a bad attitude?

Did you go into the race under-trained or over-trained?

Do you disregard your running technique because of all the hype that’s going on around you?

Just as in life, we can continuously make the same repetitive mistake and get frustrated. But when we listen, learn and adapt to the change that is needed, we can open up new doors of opportunity that we didn’t know were there.

Rochelle