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Back to Basics – Part 2

basic to basics

At the end of my Back to Basics Part 1 post, I stated, I will tell you why a new mindset is needed and what the plan is”.

The title of the post is – Back to Basics, so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the plan is. I’ve been thinking about this for a while as my fitness has gone down and the weight has gone up.

I was still a little lost and trying to figure out how to put this into a post. I then listened to an episode of a podcast I listen to regularly called Fitter Food Radio, when towards the end, the presenter Matt when talking about training, threw out, “Why does it (training) have to be so fast all the time”.

Matt carried on explaining his point, and it absolutely hit the nail on the head for me. I can’t take all the points below as my own.

Too fast

At points in my recent running career, I’ve run fast, or at least fast for myself. This “fastness” is the picture I hold in my head of myself – that I’m a fast runner. Therefore, to get back there, I have to run fast, all of the time!

I’m not anywhere near my fast shape. My impatience and lack of drive to do the work, has me training fast, failing, getting disheartened and making no gains.

Goals

Goals have always worked for me. They work for most others too. Since the London Marathon in April, I’ve not had a goal and have been rather disoriented.

Running goals are normally races or a target time, but right now I need to take a different perspective, or just have some perspective. Losing a few kgs and getting back into a running habit should be the goal.

Pain-free

In the previous post I mentioned, I’ve been experiencing a bit of pain through stiff feet and sore knees, some of which is age-related.

I could go on as I am, or I could try and sort some of this out. To do that, I have to ease back, do good quality runs and exercise, that doesn’t blow me away every time. I need to cut back on the distances and slow the pace down, to build and restored my body.

A point that came up on the podcast was – What’s the reason you’re exercising? The most common reason is that you’re doing it for yourself, and that’s what you need to remember. It’s not always about times and medals; it’s about feeling better and just being healthy.

You know what to do!

Recovery and rehab are something that often easily missed or forgotten. I’m especially guilty of this and has probably had a significant detrimental effect on me.

My time right now would be better spent doing 20 minutes mobility or stretching, rather than going for a run. Or an easy shorter run followed by some foam rolling. Once the base is there, I can ramp up the distances/paces/intensity.

I recently read this simple and excellent equation that put it well –

Stress + Rest = Growth

Exactly what I need.

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