Recovering Type A

Some people blog to keep themselves accountable to their goals. I am one of those people who has the opposite problem, at least when it comes to running – goals always mess me up. If I set a goal, I have to do it no matter what, or at least I used to. I don’t think I’m much different than most runners. It’s like I tell my students: Most runners I know will finish a workout no matter what. Five miles is the goal and my right foot falls off? No problem, I still have one good foot; I’ll hop home.

I can become way too anal about the workouts and doing them just because I set them (often leading to injury), which is hilariously stupid since I’m not likely to ever win a race (oh and I guess I would have to enter a race to even think about winning one).So I’m trying to abandon this notion of “goals” for now and embrace ultramarathoner and creator of ChiRunning, Danny Dreyer’s philosophy of turning running into a holistic practice rather than a fitness sport. I am working on focusing my mind, relaxing my body and getting a great workout. All that without pain and injury.

I’m still too focused on results. It’s not as if I’m setting any speed records but I still like knowing my times, even if they are slow. I like checking my heart rate average (which is way too high and hopefully a cardiologist will tell me why soon, but that’s a post for another day). I like deciding how far to run that day and knowing when I’ve hit the mark.

On the other hand, I am learning – about as fast as my running times – how to listen to my body. How to “body sense” and feel every sensation in my body as I run rather than ignoring that little twinge that later turns into a little pain that over a few runs turns into a bigger pain and then maybe becomes an injury. And it’s working. The more I relax, the better I run and the better my body feels after a run.

So now instead of goals, I make “plans.” When those plans go awry, it’s everything I have to actually stop and walk it in. But I’m getting better at it. Experience tells me going home early one day means I’ll be able to run the next. But plowing through, ignoring a whispering knee or shin ache can knock me down for more than a few days thanks to a variety of car accidents, a childhood fall from a top bunk straight onto my tailbone, and high school and college sports injuries or even something as simple as poor eating. (Given that I thought I’d never be able to run even 1 mile ever again because of injuries, I should be grateful just to be running at all.)

Maybe I’m the only person who has had this problem of plowing through pain and ramping up my miles and speed too quickly, but I doubt it. I see too many people taking my ChiRunning workshop trying to eliminate plantar fasciitis, knee pain, back pain or any other number of issues.

Danny believes we can run well into our 90s with his technique. I’m a believer but it’ll be up to me to make it happen. He says we get injured for two reasons – poor biomechanics and doing too much too soon. His technique has fixed the first issue and I’m working to fix the second.