Life Lessons From Training For A Half Marathon
Last year this time, if you would’ve told me that I would be running 13.1 miles next year, I would have laughed and shrugged it off. But here I am, having completed one of the most hardest physical challenges I’ve undertaken in my life. Last week I ran the Golden Gate Half Marathon, after training for it for about 10 weeks. I had done some 5K and 10K runs in the past, but this was my first time running a much longer distance. I learnt some very valuable lessons along the way, that I think apply to not just running but life in general.
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We can be our own biggest blockers at times. We may think that we can’t do something, or achieve something. As a result, we don’t even end up trying. When I signed up for the half marathon, I couldn’t even run one single mile without stopping for breath. In that state I definitely didn’t feel like I was ready to run 13 miles! But getting started, is simultaneously the hardest and the easiest thing to do. It is hard because we tend to immediately think of all the unknowns that we might face along the way. But it is also easy because it is simply one step that needs some deliberation. The rest is figure-out-able, like everything else in life.
Progress is non-linear
Sometimes we expect our progress to look like
But it ends up looking like
There are days where I would easily run a certain distance and feel like I had finally run a distance I hadn’t run before, but the very next time I attempted it I would fail (for several reasons, mostly situational). Initially in my training I would get dejected and lose faith in myself.
When we start a new skill with a learners mindset we could be prepared to fail the first few times but eventually hope to get better and better, and broadly speaking, yes that happens. But if you zoom in to day-over-day progress, sometimes it is normal to feel like you’re actually regressing. But as learning continues over a prolonged period of time you will still see progress. I realized that sometimes progress doesn’t happen in a straight line, and we have to go through multiple iterations of trial, error and struggle. The key is to be patient and kind with ourselves when learning a new skill.
C for Consistency, Commitment, Continuity
With the knowledge that progress might not be linear when starting off on a new journey, it is fair to say that still showing up is half the battle won. Sometimes we’re all susceptible to procrastination. I admit to having skipped a few days of training when I ought to have been out there running just because I was lazy. But knowing why I signed up and committed to the challenge helped me continue to show up. It’s easy to show up on the days that you feel great and your body is not tired and you’re mentally stress free. But growth happens on the days when it is actually difficult to show up, and you do. And this is true not just in training, but in all of our habits, our work and our relationships. This is probably the most easiest said and hardest done. But as I continue to walk the many journeys in life, I’m realizing this infallible rule that on some days showing up is important even if you don’t feel up to it.
Pain is in the mind but injury is real
Rest and recovery in life isn’t talked about nearly as much as it should. I’ve been taught that pain is a mental construct, and that it is important to treat it as a fleeting feeling just like our other emotions. While it is easy to push ourselves to continue through our pain and ignore that voice inside us that is crying for help, sometimes literally, it is important to pay attention to our pain before it morphs into something irreversible only to leave scars. This is so apt in running and in life. We keep pushing ourselves through stressful and traumatic life situations, pretending that everything is ok “on the surface”. But these could be damaging on a deeper level. It is important to access that self awareness and attend to our pain. Wanting to heal our injuries, emotional or physical- should be instinctive.
Sleep and nutrition are important
And it make perfect sense in every context, not just in the context of training for a long run or hike. As someone who has struggled with sleep for several years now, I realized the importance of getting a good nights’ sleep now more than ever. And as I started paying close attention to how my body feels I realized that I can see the effects of getting a good nights’ sleep the very next day. The mental clarity that comes from a properly nourished and rested body is unparalleled. While I may not always eat clean, and sometimes indulge in junk food, I’m now wary of what could cause my body to feel differently and not optimized for performance.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my life takeaways from running a half marathon. I would love to know yours from the comments. Thanks for reading!