Brain Usage

Monday, April 28, 2014 · Mike Davis

Hi Everyone, This morning I was unable to sit down and enjoy my coffee and write as I had to help my daughter get our elliptical out of our basement and into my truck. After that my Sunday was off and running with church and then a visit to my Mothers so I am finally sitting down to write. How's your running going? Hard to believe that 2 runs last week was actually a good week for me. My latest run (Saturday) was a little less than 4 miles but my calf was okay so I was quite pleased. This week I look forward to a few easy runs in hopes that my calf continue to get better. The devil comes when I let my desire to speed up overtake my good sense to keep it at a pace that protects my calf. Running takes considerable brain usage some times and even I who should no better doesn't always use it. My longest standing client popped the big question the other night. "What do I think of her running a marathon?" When I started working with Jaime over two years ago she struggled to get healthy enough to run on a regular basis and wanted badly to get to the starting line of a half marathon. Well in two years time she has run multiple half marathons and even posted some amazing times. Despite her insistence that running healthy was her only goal, I knew eventually a marathon would find its way into her goals. I was actually ahead of her as I had her scheduled to run 130 minutes only a week out from a half marathon. Typically I wouldn't have someone run that distance so close to their race but I had decided that I wanted to take the kid gloves off of Jaime and challenge her some. Not surprisingly to me she had a great run and went considerably more than half marathon distance. With a good race next week, run smartly, I believe Jaime will be prepared both mentally and physically to start training for a marathon. Wisely she is letting me find a marathon that I think will be serve her and I appreciate that trust. Jaime is not unique in her trajectory as a runner and while she has faced some challenges, she has maintained the determination and discipline required to improve her running. I can't express enough the importance to stay disciplined and smart when it comes to running any distance. The physical requirements can actually be the easiest aspect, but the discipline can often be the biggest challenge. Sticking to a good plan that often hold back the runner takes a great deal of mental effort and doesn't always seem to work well with runners. I often have to lecture someone about going rogue or over training when it appears they think they know better or follow their emotions. Jaime has been fairly disciplined and pretty much stayed with her personal training plan and the results have been nothing short of amazing. Her new goal of running a marathon will challenge NFLR greatly but because we are so in tune with our runners, we will have a good grasp of Jaime's needs and precautions. That's exactly what personalized training is all about! Time to go to bed! Have a great week! Mike