We’re a funny lot us runners.
Ever more people seem to be taking up serious training for their
preferred sport with large amounts of gusto. We band of enthusiastic amateurs
find ourselves embarking on the sort of training that can make some professionals
blush. We can buy mountains of kit, coaching support, massage and physiotherapy
and we juggle multiple training sessions a day with family life, day-to-day
living and often stressful jobs. I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch
of the imagination of infer that those willing to train eight times a week are
often going to be equally motivated in their professional lives.
However, there’s an elephant in the room that is rarely discussed.
At our level, really is it worth all that? When it comes to it, we are what is
stated above, amateurs.
How many of you can honestly say you haven’t been at your
desk on a Monday morning, almost having to scrape yourself off the floor to get
through a day that no amount of Berrocca can rescue.
Now I don’t subscribe to the ‘too cool for school’ philosophy
that looks down on those trying hard. Some are blessed with wonderful natural
athletic ability, others (myself included) are most definitely not and have to
work for it. I will never put someone down for being keen. The fact that
someone is clearly passionate about a sport is a great thing.
But it’s a fine line between keenness and obsessiveness. I
sometimes wonder if we should wind our neck in occasionally. There’s no need to
spend HOUR AFTER HOUR searching the net for training tips and it’s not the end
of the world if one particular 300m split is a second or two slower than the
others.
We often deny ourselves social interaction because it will
interfere with training. In fact our lives are often dictated by our training
schedules. But ff you want that night out, sausage roll, cake or bottle of
wine, FFS have it and don’t beat yourself up over it.
In running we talk about finding ‘flow’, I would argue that
the flow of life should include indulgences whenever and wherever you want them.
For God’s sake, life (and training) is hard enough.
Train like a Champion, just don’t be Martyr.
