TO
TRAIN OR NOT TO TRAIN? THAT IS THE QUESTION.
On
Sunday I completed the City to Surf Fun Run, a 12 kilometre (7.2
mile) run from Perth to City Beach in Western Australia. I had run
it a number of times before, the first time being when I was 14.
It's meant to go something like this; about 12 weeks out from the Fun
Run, I start to train with short runs increasing in distance, tempo,
and intensity over the next 12 weeks to condition myself to run. I
watch what I eat and coming into the last few days before the actual
run, I load up on good carbohydrates to ensure I have a good store of
energy when I run. During this time, I also stretch to ensure my
muscles have enough elasticity to minimise the chance of injury while
I run.
When I
was younger, I did little, if any of this, because I was active,
flexible, lean and able to recover quickly afterwards. As I aged, in
my head I still felt the same and even though I am older I am still
in better condition than most, so my actual training was almost
non-existent although I watched what I was eating as I already do.
In fact most of my training consisted of walking around our property
looking after the horses, including the big hill that conquers most
people. My excuse was the one most people use. I was really busy
and couldn't find time to train.
On race
day, I arrived, did a few cursory stretches, did a little jogging and
bounced a little to warm up. The race was on. I tried to keep my
ego out of it, and keep a steady pace. I spotted an older chap,
probably around 60, who looked like he ran regularly, and had a
wonderful steady even tempo, so I used him as a pacer. I lost him
once, but found him a kilometre later. My lungs were working
beautifully, I wasn't puffed. My legs moved smoothly, I took regular
sips of water and doused my head to keep cool. The only thing that
was offering me problems was my calves. They were struggling.
Despite my lack of training, I only walked about 300 metres of the
course, and maintained a reasonable pace throughout.
My goal
was to beat my time that I had set in 1983 of 59 minutes when I was
15. Considering that I am nearly three times that age now, I came in
at around an hour and ten minutes. It was a bit hard to tell
exactly, because I accidentally stopped my stop watch mid-race. I
struggled a bit toward the end as my calves were really hurting, but
I was still running. I was quite proud of myself and am pretty happy
with my time.
As I
sit here writing this, I have spent the last two days, walking like I
am 93 years old with two dodgy hips. It made me realise that I
should have trained. Next year I will do exactly that and train
properly, because I really want to break my best time. Next year
will be the one! It also gave me a bit of an epiphany. In life,
like running and any fitness plan, we do little training, little
preparation, little forward projection, then wonder why we end up
with sore calves, torn tendons, sore feet, and any number of pains.
If I had sat down, worked out a plan, scheduled in time to train by
prioritising the various areas of my life to ensure that I was ready,
the result would have been vastly different, I would more than likely
have broken my record by a considerable amount. My life has been
much the same. If I had taken the time to plan and prepare, I could
have avoided a lot of pain.
Do you
have times when you were posed the question, 'To train or not to
train? That is the question', and decided not to and then wondered
why you ended up with pain. Sometimes we don't even know we have to
train. Sometimes we don't even know what the training is. If only
we took the time. I certainly wish I had taken some time at least to
train. What about you? What do you choose?
Wayne
Brown is a facilitator and promoter for life change. Contact him at
or
listen to his podcasts at
www.the7bigquestions.podomatic.com
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