blog
Embracing Athletic Identity
Last night, I went to watch a track meet. An amazing group of humans turned up to run fast laps around the oval: there were high school athletes, college athletes, local amateur athletes, Special Olympics athletes, and even professional athletes. All ages, all levels– and all of them working at their limits.
The energy was electric– runners warming up everywhere. Coaches shouting out advice and splits to racers. Game faces on.
I watched from the grandstand (ok, and also from the beer garden) and marveled at the whole event. Despite being a dedicated runner, I had never, in my 40 years on the planet, been to a track meet before.
Why, I wondered, had I missed out on the fun for so long?
Act Like An Athlete All Day Long
You're sticking to your training plan. You're hitting your workouts hard. You're checking the boxes. So why do you keep getting little niggles? Why are you sick again? Why did you miss that PR by a hair, again?
Training matters. But you spend more time not running than you spend running. And that can work to your advantage, if you’re smart– adaptation doesn't happen while you're actually training, it happens in between.
Athletes don’t stop being athletes when they step off the track, or the trail, or the court, or the field. They make decisions to support their performance all day long. You can, too.
The Off Season
I trained my butt off this fall, building my running up through the summer to prepare for a 50k trail race at the beginning of October. All that training carried me over the finish line of a super challenging goal event feeling strong. It felt awesome. Then I ate a burrito, slept in the car on the way home, and thought about how nice it would be to have Saturday mornings free again. After that huge build up of back-to-back weekend long runs, I felt tired, accomplished-- and ready for a break.
Why seasons matter
If you grew up playing sports, you had a built-in structure: fall, winter, spring. Maybe it was football, basketball, soccer. Or cross country, indoor, outdoor. You focused on something for a few months, you had a little break, then you focused on something else. Maybe you even took the whole summer off and just did whatever seemed fun (cannonball!!).