The Challenge of Running: Some Tips and Analysis of My Experience

Normally, when I read and try to learn from internet sources, I prefer a little clarification about the author. Call me paranoid but it's nice to know your learning from someone competent and not some crazy man ranting on about who knows what. So heres a little summary of my running career: I ran track and cross country for 6 years in grade school and was offered numerous track scholarships. I declined them all and decided to remove running as an intricate part of my life. Running 2500 miles a year for half a decade takes a toll on your body eventually and I lost alot of my thunder. But I managed to create a wonderful hobbie out of what use to be a grueling and competitive sport.

Running seems obvious to most people, a jog down the street and back, waving at neighbors, taking the dog with you. A very enjoyable and relaxing experience. Which it is, but theirs two sides to this coin, and one side isnt at all the running that you see in flat neighborhoods and quiet sidewalks. For example have you ever seen a man peacefully jogging suddenly stop and throw up everything he has had to eat since last tuesday? Or him wiping blood off his face because the cold is making his nose bleed? To explain things easier, Jogging is fun, relieving and inspiring, you jog to Disney movie soundtracks and big band swing. Running isnt fun, it's painful and trying, you run to death metal and dark rap. That's just explaining the polar extremes so we can separate ourselves from "Jogging" and focus more on what this article is about, "Running."

To become the best at anything I will throw moderation out the window. Screw moderation! I cant' stand it. Practice guitar for an hour a day, you know what? I'll practice for 7 hours a day and be seven times better than you. Read 10-15 pages of a book then rest your eyes. If its a good book i'll read that bad boy till im done. Same for running, they would tell me run twice a day and ofcoarse I would but they never said run 8 miles twice a day and then bike 10 miles and finally work out. Knowing my habits now, my stories might actually seem believable. Im not bragging ofcoarse im explaining how my body reacted to intensity and when it did break, why.

My senior year of high school was the pinnacle of my experimentation and lack of moderation. I forced myself to up two miles a day each week and then drop down to 6 miles on monday. So by saturday I was running 17-18 miles. Those saturdays were a bit of a personal hell for me, but determination fueled a fire I could not explain. I would actually convince myself the world was against me and my warrior spirit would light up. I would imagine people saying I couldn't handle it or that I wasn't fast enough, and through that understanding I could do anything I wanted, because of my pride and my unrelenting quest to be the best.

One saturday I took off on my 18 mile trek early in the cold morning. Moving through mountain trails to city streets, my course took me everywhere and made me face every possible geological type. Being only the second week of this training schedule I had yet to experience a break in my mental stability running, and that first break would grace itself on that saturday. Running down through the hilly back roads behind the city was my favorite part. A constant struggle of up hill and down hill made the run interesting but three miles in the trail I started feeling a certain fatigue. In running the difference from normal pain and fatigue is a big one. Pain can be dealt with, it can be blocked from the mind and eventually forgotten. Fatigue is a complete destruction of energy, spirit, and will. I never figured out how to battle fatigue except to roll one word in my mind over and over again, "trudge." The word had a powerful meaning to it, or atleast to me. It meant to push on, without certain purpose or strength, but to know it's for you and though hopeless it may be, not to relinquish what you've already accomplished. I've found the trudge effect works about 50% of the time, pending on your mental stability. That day the fatigue ripped "trudge" apart, and left me with nothing. I stopped (never stop) and began coughing, it was roughly 30 degrees outside but my body was warm and the cold wasn't noticeable. It was the weakness in my body from the workouts ive been doing. Not enough rest was giving and now my body was literally backfiring. The coughing picked up and my stomach ached. My vision became blurry and I had to sit down. It felt like a hang over, like my body went from 100% efficiency to maybe 20 or 30%. Things climaxed when I actually lost control of my bowls. Which was a shock but in a way understandable, my body was a wreck, it was doing all it could to fix me. After that though things began to calm down, my senses returned, I could feel my limbs, the only noticeable problem was that i had indeed lost control of my bowl movement. I mustered up all my pride and "trudged" home. I got out of my clothes and showered. I was sick after that for two days. Yes, I was defeated, in all sense of the word. But the human body is an amazing thing, it can take trauma that isnt to extent and improve upon its former weaknesses. That's exactly what my body did and for the next 5 weeks after that I continued the same training schedule, only to move on to an even harder one after that. I was bested once and it hurt, but to best me again would take something truly insane, and later that year I found it...

Next week I should be able to finish what happened with my spring and summer training schedules. But for the conclusion of my first "Running" article go outside on the coldest day of the week, and adventure. Your not adventuring the land, your adventuring your tolerance towards everything that pains you in the run. And then after the run reflect and decide if you pushed enough. If not, wait an hour, strap the shoes on and do it again.