Tuesday, October 18, 2024 – Limits

Hi Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! As I hope you all know, I am so grateful for this crew! Some awesome results from the weekend. In Chicago we had Roz Salter and Leigh Anne Jacques who both ran PB’s and BQ’s!!! Then in Nova Scotia, Amy and Sam both ran stellar Half Marathons –Amy’s in the middle of a big marathon training build, and Sam’s after the Berlin Marathon! Very inspiring.

What I’ve been thinking about this week is limits. We all have them in all areas in life; real or imagined, self-imposed or inescapable, moveable or impossible to get past. In training, our goal is to discover these limits, and see if we can either shift them or work within them. This is rewarding because it requires curiosity, self-discovery, adaptability and strength of will. I think some people are wired to this way of thinking. At least one of my kids definitely is. There has never been a limit presented to him that he hasn’t had to push and test again and again. Usually the limit moves. Sometimes it doesn’t and that leads to tough consequences. This is not a mellow way to go through life, but I guess those of us doing what we’re doing are not signing up for mellow.

Testing limits is a risk and can come with potential damage. When we’re driven to find limits, we can ignore the little signs that tell us we’re getting close. We want to bump right up against the hard limit, otherwise we feel we haven’t really reached it. This way of behaving can lead to great success or total catastrophe. Luckily, with practice, we can learn to listen to the signals that tell us we’re getting close. This takes wisdom and discipline (two things, unfortunately, that my teenager hasn’t yet mastered). In training, we tend to think “more is always better” because it makes logical sense. However, it’s only absorbable work that counts. Absorbable means it’s the right amount of stress so that our bodies can say “ok, that was hard, let’s get stronger so we can deal with it better next time” – and then has the resources (sleep, food, relaxed state) to rebuild. There are many factors which can bring this formula from being just under the limit to over the limit. We know them: sleep, fuel, stress, previous load you’re carrying, mental state, hormonal state, motivation… these things all define our limits and they are all in flux all the time.

So what are we to do? Continue striving, searching, and testing. That is fun and rewarding and leads to growth. But without the recklessness of teenagers. Let’s do it wisely, listening to the signals and trusting ourselves over the inner voice saying “more, more, more”. That voice is a hungry ghost which will never be satisfied and it’s not working in our own self-interest. Let’s explore our limits, but with the discipline of not self-destructing in the process. And we’ll be self-compassionate and supportive of each other when we do go over – we all will at some point. That is part of the learning. Onwards!

Tomorrow’s workout will be back at Lakeshore and Leslie: 6:05 drills, 6:15 GO!

Straight up 600’s. 1:15 rest (not too long so we don’t go too fast). 6-8 of them depending on where you are in your build/ recovery. I would go to 10 for those of us training for CIM except that it’s a recovery week (limits!) If anyone not on a recovery week wants to try for 10, go for it.

That is all – see you in the am!

Seanna