Wednesday morning chat

Wednesday, December 02, 2015 · Mike Davis

Good morning! Grab your coffee and pull up a chair. With quick turn of the calendar we are now into December and things get a little more challenging running wise with each passing day. Darkness dominates the running hours, cold is the normal temperature and others life challenges all contribute to keeping us out of our running shoes. Thankfully I have No Finish Line Running to keep me running through those obstacles as it would be difficult to be in this business and not be running. However truth be told, the last year or so I have not felt great about my running both physically and mentally. In the past I thrived on the various challenges that came with running and even used them to motivate me. Running lifted me up like nothing else could and even winter running pumped me up. Also whether it has been the struggle with injuries or the aging process but, my performance has fallen off considerably. Thankfully I find the greatest value from running is not based on performance but, there are times when I would like to run faster for longer periods and that has been a challenge. Last night the desire to run repeats outside in the cold and rain was definitely not there. Instead I drove to the base gym with the intent to run on the treadmill. Walking up to the gym in my flip flops a guy let me know that this particular gym didn’t have cardio machines and proceeded to tell me where the gym was that had cardio equipment. Now it was nearly 6:30 and the idea of driving across base was not appealing but, I decided to see if I could at least find the gym. With some effort I finally pulled into the gym and figured since I was there, I may as well go in. The cardio room was nothing special, 6 treadmills and 6 elliptical machines but, there were vacant treadmills so I had no excuse but to get on one. After some messing around with the programming I was finally off and running. My repeats were to be 400 meters at 7 something pace with 200 meter recoveries. Challenging for sure as the previous weeks had been 400s with 400 recoveries. The shorter recoveries are meant to continue the process of improving my aerobic capability (intelligent training). This workout proved to not only be quick but, also a lot of fun. I pushed myself a bit harder than the workout might have called for but, my body felt great and strong. All said, staying strong physically and mentally are important to me and both lead to my motivation. I may have no choice to run through the winter because of NFLR and that’s a good thing. However, if I stay on the path of being running strong, I will stay running through the winter because of the empowerment that results from it. Showing up on a cold morning or a dark cold night is not easy but, knowing that my body has gotten stronger physically and mentally will make it a lot easier. Thankfully though we do have the winter running group at NFLR, which makes a huge difference. Which is available to all runners throughout the winter. Time to get along. Hope you have a great day! God Bless! Mike