What is up, everybody? So I made a post this week about easy days easy, hard days hard, and it picked up a lot of traction, a lot of people seem to resonate with it, and I think one of the reasons people resonate with it is because it’s so true. The biggest reason that it’s true is because a lot of us have insecurities, so a lot of us feel like if we don’t work hard, either we’re falling behind our peers or behind things that we’ve done in the past, or somebody’s telling us that it’s expected that we’re supposed to work hard instead of knowing that there is a process at play and that this takes time. If you’re a coach or a parent or even an athlete, know that you don’t get better from doing your workout. You get better from recovering from your workout and adapting to your workout. Workouts actually make you worse; workouts are going to tear you down and make you more inefficient immediately afterwards, so don’t think that “oh, I hammered this workout, I’m better now.” It’s “no, you hammered that workout, you’re setting yourself up to become better if you allow yourself to recover and adapt from the work that you just put in.” The recovery piece is just as important, if not more important, than the workout itself. Otherwise, you’re just going to put a lot of work in and not see a lot of benefit from it, which nobody wants, right?
This is a challenging sport, we’re working really hard, and this is tough. We want to see some benefit, we want to see some outcome on the other end and know that our the work that we’re putting is for something other than just kind of making us feel good. Feeling good is definitely a big, big part of it – a big part for me even, just the headspace and knowing that I’m out here enjoying the world (it’s beautiful day out today), but knowing that what I’m doing is actually making me healthier, making more fit and making some physiological changes.
The way that I like to think about this is with an analogy. This analogy isn’t mine, I took it from a Nate Carlson podcast. He’s a phenomenal physical therapist and running coach in the Kansas City area. He says running is like cooking eggs. If you think about cooking eggs, what do we do? We turn the burner on, we cook the pan nice and slow, we cook the eggs, we get them to perfection- just the way we want them, then we take them off, but it takes some time – it’s a little bit of an investment to get the eggs just the way we want them. If you’re really really hungry, and you want to get those eggs really fast, some people make the mistake of turning that burner up really hot, and they try to cook the eggs really fast. When you do that you have this narrow window of time where you have really good eggs. Otherwise, they’re going to be really underdone or really overdone.
That’s what happens when we run. That’s what a lot of people do, and the mistake that a lot of people make when they’re trying to increase their fitness. They think “well, so-and-so is running times I want to run and they’re training at this pace, and they’re doing this workout, I gotta do that now, I gotta try to do these workouts and get as good as them immediately” without knowing that burner has got to be on low and slow. You’ve got to consistently put in the work, day after day, week after week, month after month. Some of these people have been doing workouts like this and training like this for years. This is gonna take some time. That burner is low and slow. If you crank it up really hot, really quickly, all you’re gonna do is hurt yourself, make yourself work worse, and not enjoy what you’re doing. Remember, your running is just like cooking eggs – make it low and slow. You’re in it for the long haul. Enjoy it.
Here at Peak Endurance Performance & Physical Therapy we help active adults in the Madison Area get back to the activities they love without pain or limitations. We see people of all ages, ability levels, and individuals trying to get back to a multitude of movements including: getting back into running, women postpartum, CrossFit athletes, climbers, gymnasts, wrestlers, overhead athletes, and your recreational weekend warrior. If you’re looking to get back to the activities that give you meaning, relieve stress, and make you feel like you again, feel free to reach out below and we’ll see if we’re the right fit for you.