Support

When you build a house, it needs proper support.

In the same way, when you run for 12 hours, you need your support.

Without support, you can't go as far, do as much, hold as much.  We need support, because it helps us.  Right now, the support I'm going to be talking about is supporting my right knee.  For some reason, my right knee seems to be a lot weaker.  It's probably because I've played soccer and have hurt it a couple times.  However, if I train properly, the muscles around the knee will support it so that it won't work too hard.

In order to help myself, I've made sure to train this part of my body before I go out and train hard core for my races.  It's kind of like training for the training.  To make sure that I train well enough, I need to make sure that my body is ready to handle the different amounts of strain that would be a part of the race.  Whether it is long or short, I would need to make sure that my knees would be protected from the harsh training I would go under.  Today, I went over to the gym and went on the stationary bike and cycled for 50 minutes, finishing 13.6 miles.  Did I work hard? No.  Did I work long?  Yes.  The whole point of the stationary bike is to make sure that my knee would get the long and easy training, to begin building the muscle needed to run.  Since my training is going to be tough, I needed to make sure that I was in enough shape that I would be able to undergo the training.

For the time being, until I feel that my knee is ready, I'm going to rotate running and cycling, so that I would be ready for the training.  If I don't do that, then that means that I am putting my knee and running career in danger, and I'm not ready to do that.

Support is critical because it spreads the strain from one specific part to multiple parts.  I remember when I was in middle school, we had a bridge building contest.  We all got spaghetti noodles and glued them together to make a bridge that we would put weights on to see how much we could put on it without it breaking.  Although I didn't win, I did learn the importance of support.  Without a proper structure of support, the bridge would not be able to hold as much, but with support, the bridge would be able to carry a lot more weight.  Support divides up the workload and allows the weight to be distributed evenly so that the strain doesn't go to one specific area, and instead, works a lot of different areas, making it a lot easier.

There are times in life when you can't do things on your own.  That's why it's important to have the support you need with you.