Bang for the Buck?

A Less Return-Seeking Approach to Running

I was thinking about running today.

I wasn't looking into the future, like imagining my possible next running life. I was looking into the past, into my running life before I was injured.

I have already shared my thoughts on the factors that might have contributed to my injury (maybe overtraining, lack of motivation, carelessness, ...) and my suspicion that I might have been in imminent danger of running into runner's burnout. Today, however, I thought about the background noise of my running.

(Photo by Chris Drüke)

Background Noise

By background noise I mean the mundane, the uncommented on, the unspectacular, the things you do 'because you do them'. In short: jogging.

I don't mean a specific type of workout, but the feeling that comes with jogging. It usually lasts between 45 and 75 minutes and is done at an easy to moderate pace. You typically do it on your local course, if you have one. Or on your way to work. Or you squeeze it in after work, or wherever you can. It doesn't hurt, so why not get a jog done before dinner or a meeting with friends?

Getting the Jog Done

The phrase "get it done" already indicates what I am trying to point out. I have noticed that before my injury I used to "get it done" with many of my jogs. My focus was mainly on the hard or long sessions – or the hard and long ones. The "real training" so to speak.

I don't need to mention here that the sum of all the easy runs in your training contributes at least as much to overall progress as the so-called quality sessions, do I? Yes, it's true, it's science, but that's not my point today.

I'm more interested in whether it's clever to "get your running done." Of course, some runs are nicer than others, but my general attitude to jogging and easy running seems, in retrospect, to have been a bit off.

(Photo by Chris Drüke)

Bang For The Buck

My half-baked theory is that I fell into the trap of expecting every run to produce a tangible result. To have an effect. A training effect, to be precise. I am glad that I will always and forever love the feeling of running. Running for the sake of running. But during these last weeks of intense training, I found the idea of getting something out of the effort more and more appealing. Bang for the buck, so to speak. But maybe that's a dead end.

Return of Investment

Street wisdom like "after 6 long runs you can run a marathon" or "if you can run your 1000m intervals in XX:XX, then you can run the 10k in XX.XX" really resonates with me. They get stuck in my head. Sometimes I can't get rid of them for years. They seem to make the value I hope to get from training almost tangible. They seem to materialise it. But anyone who has experienced the giant gap that can open up between training results and race results knows that these sayings are fallacies.

I can't and don't want to plan my next running life. It's something that will just happen. But I can imagine what it might be like. I enjoy the idea of running with a little less focus on return, and perhaps giving the jog the love and attention it deserves.

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Everything Not Running

I recently went to a wedding. Probably the most out of my comfort zone thing I have done in the past three years. I have to be honest and say that I wouldn't have gone if it wasn't for one of my best friends, Niko.

The most important thing first: I had fun.

And yet, I wonder why, even after 45 years on planet Earth, many things that are 'normal' for other people are quite difficult for me. Of course, we all tick differently, and very often it is the other way round. But it is quite noticeable that I quickly reach my limits, especially in a social context. Weddings, parties, going out to restaurants in large groups, discos, I think they call them 'clubs' now, you name it.

I am very lucky that I can still do these things. I don't break out in a sweat or start shaking. But it takes an enormous amount of energy. And the older I get, the more critical I am about where I spend my (life) energy.

However, in the case of the wedding, it was well spent. Not only because I knew it meant a lot to Niko, but also because I had a superb time. And there was a lot of food. Some really delicious food. So it was well worth it.

(Guess who’s the groom….)