Tagged: motivation

A Tale of Three Runners

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…if you understand that reference then you’re probably my age or older (or just enjoy reading).  Actually, this weekend it was the best of times for three of my athletes.

Recently in my city of Ottawa we had our annual Ottawa Race Weekend.  It is a fantastic weekend for runners where they hold a marathon, half marathon and a 10k and 5k and all events are well attended with over 30,000 people participating.  Every year it is run flawlessly for the most part (although they had a bit of a screw up on the ½ marathon course this year) and attracts runners from all over the world.  Since runner coaching is a part of my business I wanted to share a story about three of my athletes who all come from different aspects of fitness, but all achieved a level of success this weekend, even though they started in very different places.

RP is a gentleman who has been working with me for over two years, who although he just turned 40 still has the athletic ability of a gazelle and the sparkling wit to match.  When he started working with me he had acute Achilles tendonitis and he had 8 weeks to his first marathon.  He couldn’t run for more than about 10k without pain.  I distinctly remember the look on his face when I told him his mileage was getting cut in half 8 weeks before a marathon, but he went with it and successfully ran his first marathon.  Since then he has done several other races including two more full marathons, a half marathon PB and a 500 kilometer bike ride from London to Paris.  Last weekend he beat his personal best on the marathon by over 30 minutes by staying consistent and running 4 times per week with a gradual buildup to 65-75k per week over time.

TW is a woman who came to me only a few months ago with another problem – this time ITBS, or iliotibial band syndrome and she couldn’t run at all, but still wanted to compete in the 10k with a restriction of only running 3 times per week (with a holiday mixed in for good measure).  She had previously done marathon training so was used to volume, but had to have some adjustments to her speed (I actually sped her UP to give her a proper gait) and work on her IT band issues, which resolved fairly quickly.  Her initial goal was to complete the 10k, but then a few weeks out we changed that to doing it in under an hour, which she had never done.  She finished in 58:30 with a smile on her face and no IT band issues.

CM is a woman who I have been working with for about a year who came to me because she liked to walk long distances with a goal of completing another ½ marathon walk in another short time line.  She is obese and has some other health issues that make it difficult for her to move.  We got her through that race, however she continued to suffer from calf and ankle issues and had to restrict her volume so that she could stay consistent with her workouts.  She completed another ½ marathon walk last weekend only about 10 minutes slower than the year previous – having never walked for more than an hour in training.  For her a ½ marathon walk takes four hours but she got through it, even on a brutally hot day.

These three people all made significant accomplishments last weekend.  The point I’m trying to make is that different people accomplish things differently.  All three of these athletes came at their respective events from different places, skill levels and levels of progression.  However, all had a successful result following a plan – and in CM’s case that plan was simply to get it done even though we both knew she was going to have a hard time.  With all the athletes they did what they could to make consistent progress towards the goal they had set – and then those got modified when progress was either better or worse than expected.

Anyone can be successful given the right tools and progression, no matter what you want to do.  Want to bench press 300 pounds?  Want to run a marathon?  Want to climb a mountain?  Great.  The idea is to set the goal and then work towards it carefully, mindfully towards what your body is capable of at that time and then just keeping moving forward.  And you’re never going to get anywhere by trying to not listening and respecting your body when you try to push it too far too soon.  The great thing is, it will tell you when you’re pushing too hard and try to stop you – you just have to listen.

Getting hurt doesn’t mean you have to stop – it means you have to learn what caused you to get hurt, and either stop doing it or modify what you’re doing in order to let it recover and not have it happen again down the road.  Attack the problem, not the symptom.  With a couple of these athletes it was a simple form adjustment and being mindful of what they were doing, which you should be doing anyway.

So today, tomorrow, whenever you start working towards something be smart, progress yourself within your tolerance limits and above all, listen to your body.  Oh, and hire a good coach.  I happen to know one, and he trains runners virtually as well if you’re interested.  Maybe next year you can have the same success that all of these people did, even though they started from completely different places.

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What Is Your Bus?

This article was inspired by a little old lady I observed while in my car driving home today.  The woman looked to be fairly elderly, walking slowly along the sidewalk holding a large bag.  As I drove closer, suddenly she stood up straight, grabbed her bag tight and started to run.  Not just run, sprint.  I noticed that she saw the bus coming and really, really wanted to catch it rather than waiting for the next one, which is obviously why she made that decision.  Suddenly this somewhat frail looking woman could become Usain Bolt just because she suddenly wanted to.  She did catch the bus, by the way (good for her).

As a society we typically take the easy way out, unless it is something that we really want.   Then we will beat ourselves up, lie, work ourselves into mental illness or neglect other important things simply to get it done.  This all comes down to simple priorities and motivation.  When was the last time that you missed dinner with your family or an event because you were working late?  When was the last time you skipped breakfast in order to get an extra ten minutes of sleep?  People tend to confuse “want” as opposed to “have to” more often than they need to.  As Tony Robbins would say, if you can change your “shoulds” into “musts” then your brain will literally change the way it thinks about things.

Think about this the next time you tell yourself that you “should go to the gym”.  Change the way you say it to “I have to go to the gym”.  The intention completely changes.  Just like we as trainers manipulate the intention of different exercises, you can literally change the intention of how to spend your day to day activities – without having to drop everything and sprint.  Find that reason and everything suddenly becomes easier.  I often tell people – what if someone was holding a gun to your head?  Would you get it done?  What if your children or family were at risk?  What would suddenly change that thing from 4th on your priority list to 1st?

In short – what is your bus?  What would make you drop everything and sprint, possibly sacrificing injury and losing your bags without a second thought?  Is it your job?  Your family?  Or maybe is there another bus you should be running for – like your health?  So often I hear stories from clients and people I know that they wish they had started to take care of themselves sooner, or just stayed consistent with what they were doing before another bus came along that they felt they had to start running for.  The thing is, once that bus pulls away and you miss it there might be another one coming, but it won’t take you to the same place.  You might have to travel a few extra stops before you get to where you want to go.

I’m obviously an advocate of taking care of your health and well-being first, and then everything else kind of falls into place.  This can be as simple as meditation, finding an activity that inspires you or setting a goal that motivates you to get out and do something active.  And the next time you think about stopping the momentum, just imagine that you look behind you and that bus is coming down the road.  Maybe you won’t have to sprint to get there, but it might help you pick up your pace just a bit.

The Cleaver Vs. The Scalpel

I’ve written before many times on how easy it is to kick someone’s ass physically.  In fact, I wrote about it previously under “Anyone Can Kick Somebody’s Ass” if you care to check it out.  Many times in my industry clients fall victim to trainers pushing them far too hard, or people are victims themselves by putting themselves through a workout that they have no business doing, especially over a period of time.   Due to the theory of “no pain, no gain” people think wrongly about forces and how they are applied to the body, imagining that the harder they work the faster things are going to move.  In fact many times the opposite is true, and you’re doing yourself far more harm than good by trying to stimulate the body past what it is capable of dealing with.

I was in my local butcher the other day watching a guy cut up various bits of meat while my order was being prepared, and I couldn’t help but think that the instruments he was using wasn’t too far off from what some trainers try to use when trying to mitigate change.  For some cuts there was no precision at all, just a big cleaver that hacked up everything as fast as possible for the sake of getting it done.  Now, these guys are probably better at using a cleaver than anyone because of experience, which can also be the basis for a skilled trainer to be using force like that.  They can hack through a joint without thinking about it because they have done it 1000 times.   They know just where to strike in order to separate things without having to do it again, possibly dulling the blade in the process.

However, then I saw a more delicate operation being done on a fish, which was a very precise series of cuts with a razor thin blade in order to remove bones, which if not done properly completely ruins the meat in both look and feel.  This is the other side of the equation.  If you use a cleaver to debone a fish, you’re going to get a big smelly mess on the floor and the precision that you need just isn’t there.  If you use a scalpel to hack up a chicken, you’re likely to not only take forever but get really frustrated when you try to cut through a joint.  When I’m dealing with a serious injury case, it needs to be precise, focused energy devoted to doing exactly what I want to have happen, otherwise I’m going to potentially make the person worse, not better.  However, if I’m dealing with a person who needs to be able to generate a lot of force for a specific physical act, then maybe they need a different approach.

So does the desired result dictate the tool or the other way around?

In my experience too many people think too much about the outcome and not how they are going to get there.  They are so focused on the goal and willing to do whatever it take to get there they forget about the tool, and that in the physical world there is an endless amount of tools at their disposal in order to achieve that goal.  This is where real skill as a trainer enters the picture.  Just like a master chef, a really good trainer can pull out a variety of tools in order to create the desired outcome that they are looking for, whether it be simple movement, higher amounts of force, or even something like changes to lifestyle for a client.  Some people need a cleaver because they need to have things completely changed – and they can handle the force.  Some require a bit of a finer touch and just some very precise modifications in order to keep their progress moving forward.  Many clients prefer the cleaver, thinking that the best approach is just to smash everything, when the scalpel is often what is needed, especially at the beginning of an exercise program, or a change to what you are trying to accomplish.  The ego can easily get in the way.

So the next time you are evaluating your exercise program, ask yourself – what tool do you need in order to make things the most effective for what you are trying to achieve at that moment?  And on top of that, would you be better off using another tool at that point because the one you really want to use or are used to using doesn’t do the right thing?  This requires thought and constant evaluation.  The benefit of working with someone who knows how to do this is that it takes the guess work out of it for you.  However, even if you are working on your own just remember that tools are just that – tools.  It is the person behind them performing the movement or coaching you through the movement that is actually causing the change.  Make sure that you are using the right ones.  And that the person you are trusting with your physical health has as many tools as possible in order to get the job done.

And if anyone in Ottawa needs a good butcher, just let me know.

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