Problems When You Go Too Fast

Faster is better right?  That's very true, but there are points where you can go too fast, and in turn destroy what you've build thus far.  Last night, as I was working as a dishwasher at Linderhof, I was asked to slice up over a hundred little red potatoes.  At first, I did it the way I was used to, but that was a little on the slow side, so I had the chef teach me the proper way of cutting which would reduce the time.  He showed me and so I looked and made it my own.  I started cutting faster and faster, which was good, but at some point, I was cutting it too fast, almost chopping my fingers off with that sharp knife.  Before it became a problem, I stopped cutting fast and worked on cutting it at a speed I could handle.  It's important to do things at a speed you can actually handle, because in doing it at a speed you can handle, your body will in turn work more efficiently, and without you realizing it, you will actually get faster because your body understands what you're doing.  As a very efficient system, your body is made to learn and improve and reach a higher efficiency rate, and when you do things consistently, your body will in turn level up that certain skill.

Whether in relationships, chopping potatoes, or running, there can be consequences of going too fast... so instead of risking it, it's a lot better to take your time and improve slowly and steadily, so that you'll be able to progress at a healthy rate.  Better to go at a healthy rate than to risk hurting something.  In life, you might be tempted to take that risk to get closer to your goals, but think about it for a moment and ask yourself if the risk is worth taking, or would it possibly negatively affect you for the rest of your life.

Remember that it's not going fast that's the problem.  It's going too fast.  We get tempted to go faster and faster at times and before we know it, we cross that threshold and have entered the domain of too fast where we somehow injure ourselves in the process.  Things can end up pretty nasty if you do go too fast so make sure that you take the right steps and focus on your healthy growth.

Today... was one of those exciting days.  I was able to go through the whole day memorizing bones and bone parts, as well as talking and eating dinner with my dad.  However, at the end of the day, I was able to play a little over 2 hours of floor hockey, where we had some hard core games going on.  I didn't get to go running... but I did manage to get my anaerobic exercise and also work on my recovery rate.  Pretty sore by the end of the day... but hey, I had a ton of fun.

Don't Wait til it's Too Late

Once upon a time, not too long ago, I got sick.  Now... I NEVER got sick, so I refused to believe it and chose to man through it.  I knew that I could handle sickness by myself.  What I didn't know was that I was trying to man through strep throat... I went strong for a couple days, my throat getting more painful and painful, but I felt like if I kept going, I would be able to make it through.  Gradually, I started getting a massive headache, I had a harder time breathing, and my fever went up in my head and the rest of my body was just... messed up.  I went to the doctor and after waiting for an agonizing hour, they confirmed that I had strep throat, gave me two shots, and told me that if I had waited any further... they might have had to do some sort of surgery to help me breath...  Not the greatest experience.

DON'T WAIT TIL IT'S TOO LATE

I was lucky that I caught myself before the situation went out of control, but think about it if I waited just a little longer.  In other situations, people have waited until it's too late and have had to suffer with the consequences.  For example, there have been many people that changed their lifestyle, and started to gain weight.  Unless they're obsessed with checking how much they weigh, they won't notice the pounds that they put on until they have a heart attack or something...  It's so easy to gain fat... and it's so hard to lose fat.  If you wait until it's too late... you're in a predicament.  A lifestyle needs to be changed and you need to work hard to get back to where you need/should be.

It doesn't matter what you do in life because your lifestyle affects who you become and what you are.  Should you choose to pay attention to what you need to do, you can prevent quite a few things from happening and you'll be able to continue on in life without any of those things slowing you down.

Over the last few days, I've been running quite consistently (I don't know where to start because I don't remember when the last time I wrote a blog...) but in the last 3 days, I've run 4.01 miles, 5.84 miles, and 5.07 miles.  The last two was under the 7min/mile pace and the first one a little over.  It seems like as I consistently run, my body is able to run a lot faster (but I still need to slow down because I'm training for a 100 miler.

Making the Best Choice

Running is good for me... and so is sleeping.

We sometimes have to choose one or the other... so how do we choose?  Simple really.  All I do is listen to my body and do what needs to be done.  Should my body tell me that I ought to sleep because I haven't been sleeping too much lately... that means I ought to sleep.  However, if the body agrees and says that the run is more important, obviously, I would go for the run... the harder decision is if your body is confused about what directions you're suppose to be going.

Sometimes, life isn't black and white... but gray instead.  When that time comes, it's just as important to trust your experience as well as your intuition.  The gray areas are hard to make good decisions from, so listen carefully and try to make the best decision.

Tonight, the decision for me was to run or to go home and sleep.  I chose the latter, because it was a long day.  I was working from 4-1 and it wasn't exactly the most fun time.  Standing around doing dishes was a little bit of a physical feat, but I'm pretty used to doing that now.  Although I wanted to run, I had previously run 5 days in a row, so resting on this seemed like a good idea.

Life isn't always that easy.  Sometimes, you'll get mixed up when you make decisions.  However, the most important thing is this...  Do your best to make the best decision, according to what you know.

Overcoming Fear

When trouble comes along, people get scared.  When you're crossing the street and a car suddenly comes towards you with tires spinning, you get scared.  When you're climbing a tree and you slip, you get scared.  Fear is a normal reaction when something dangerous occurs, and there's nothing we can do about that reaction.  It's nice to know more about the situation at hand so that you're not overwhelmed, but no matter what we do, we will always have that fear.

In my life, I've had a lot of things that freaked me out.  I've cut open my thumb when I was in middle school and thought that I was going to die because of the amount of blood that came out of my thumb (long and hilarious story for another time).  I've lost control of my car going down a ramp onto an interstate and nearly slammed into a bunch of cars.... but one of the most scariest moments of my life was when I ran my first 50 mile race.  I trained a little bit for this race, ready to finish it... never having gone this distance before.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but after a couple marathons, I figured it shouldn't be too hard... but I was wrong.  At the 28 mile mark, I took a little break because I needed to get some energy back in my system, and feeling as good as new, I raced off again, only to be hit by a sudden lack of energy at mile 35.  I still had 15 more miles to go, but I really had no energy.  I was on the trails, the next aid station was about 4 miles away... I didn't know if I could make it.  All this time, I've always finished my races... and at this point, I was scared that I wouldn't be able to finish.  I was very prideful at this point and didn't even consider the possibility of a DNF (did not finish) and at mile 35, I was terrified at the thought of possibly not finishing this race...

Fortunately, I didn't die from blood loss and my aunt and mom took me to the hospital and now I have a great story.  I also didn't crash into cars while skidding down the ramp but managed to somehow get the wheels to catch the road and continue on my way...  and FINALLY, after a long time on the trails, I did finish my first 50 miler, managing to somehow get to the finish line.

Fear was a factor in all these instances and in overcoming these fears, I was able to take a step forward.  However, things don't always have a happy ending...

When I was in 6th grade, I decided to do something I've never done before.  I wanted to become a part of the student council.  I wanted to become the treasurer... so I had everything prepared and was ready to make a speech in front of the student body... but as soon as I got up there and everyone's eyes on me, I got scared.  I couldn't move.  I couldn't talk.  In fact, when I read what I had written, I stuttered so much that I was embarrassed.  To make things worse, after the day was over and I was going home, a 7th grade girl came up to me and started to make fun of me by imitating my speech and my stuttering, laughing with her friends.  I felt like crap.  I tried hard and didn't get anywhere.  For the rest of my middle school and high school days, I never again tried to be a part of the student council because of my fear of talking in public.

Fear is a reaction that we can't exactly control.  What we CAN control is our reaction to fear.  Instead of reacting, the proper terminology we should be using would be to be proactive.  In being proactive, we can control the situation we're in.  Should we let fear control us, we won't be able to amount to much and remain as we are... but should we control the fear, then we can learn and grow from it and go forward.  Fear is natural so don't fight against it.  Instead, use that fear to become stronger.  Overcome that fear to grow.

In my most recent 50k, after running 40 kilometers, I was scared that if I pushed too much, I wouldn't be able to make it and my body would be cramped up and I wouldn't be able to finish strong.  However, at the same time, I understood that if I didn't push myself a little bit harder, I wouldn't be able to catch up with the guy in front of me.  Fear is a tool meant to protect you, and if I had ignored that fear and ran recklessly, I would then end up having muscle cramps and failing to get a good time.  However, due to the fact that I understood what I was being afraid of, I was able to run in a way that I would be performing at my best without going too hard.

Don't let fear restrain you.  Instead, let it help you know more about yourself and where you are.  When you're going for your goals, you don't want to go in recklessly.  You also don't want to let it control you and keep you from your goals.  Let it help guide you and keep you in check, so that you can achieve your goals in a good and proper way.

(Yesterday, I went for a 3.95 mile run in 29:37, an average of 7:29 min/mile.  Today, I went out for a 6.1 mile run and finished that in 47:23, a 7:46 min/mile average.  Little by little, I'm getting into a good and healthier lifestyle...)

Look Straight Ahead

Running is simple.  All you do is to look straight ahead and just run.  There's nothing complex about it.  Whenever you have a goal.  There's a path to get there.  There's a course.  And the only way through it is to run that course, looking straight ahead at where you're suppose to go.  In an ultra marathon, that course is filled with twists and turns, switch backs, and river crossings.  The distance is long and the course is hard, but there is a path to that goal and should you follow it, you'll reach the finish line.

Sometimes it'll seem impossible, but as long as you look straight ahead and run, you WILL finish.  It's funny how sometimes we forget that simple act of looking straight ahead helps you get to your destination. Whether it be running, career, or anything else, looking straight ahead will result with you getting there.

Find your goal.
Look Straight ahead.
Then go for it.

The Past Few Days

Since I've started to rebuild my foundation from scratch, I've been running but not AS hard as I would have liked originally.  I'm making sure that I'm running at a healthy rate where I'm improving myself in not only fitness but in health.  The last 3 days, I've run a little faster but not... too fast.  On Monday, I ran 4 miles in 28:49, an average of 7:12 min/mile.  I definitely wasn't pushing that, but was going a little harder than what 'easy' would be.  Tuesday, I went out between classes and ran for 34:58 min because I was running out of time and had to get to class.  In that time, I ran 4.97 miles, and because I hurried a good bit on the way back, my average was 7:02 min/mile.  Finally, today, I went out for a nice run between my classes, running 5.92 miles in 47:55, an average of 8:05 min/mile.  I definitely wasn't pushing it, but I wasn't slacking.  At the moment, I'm trying to work on my aerobic threshold, and in semi-pushing myself, I'm able to get to that point of improvement, I would build a more efficient body, allowing myself to not only work more efficiently, but also make it so that when I train and race, I would be less likely to get injured.

The past few days have been days of building a foundation.  It's important to have a good, big, solid and stable foundation because it helps build you into a stronger individual.  Find the path to building a stronger individual and continue to work on it as you progress.  The progress is gradual, but the person you mold becomes that much more stable.

The 4 Stages of Confidence Building

Interesting thing I learned in class today.  What physically happens when you cut yourself is pretty interesting.  There are four stages to regenerate your skin.  The first stage is called Inflammatory Phase, where bleeding occurs and blood clots happen which protects the skin from getting infected again.  The second stage is called the Migratory Phase, where damaged cells are replaced and we have things called macrophages patrol damaged area in the skin and eat the debris.  The third stage is called the Proliferation Phase where the fibroblasts get together to repair the skin with scar tissue (skin with extra collagen, which is why the scar tissue has this shiny look) and while that's all going on, the clot breaks down from the inside out, leading to the final stage.  The last stage is called the Maturation Phase.  By now the scab is gone, the skin is fixed up and now we have scar tissue growing over the epidermis.

You learn so much in class and I'm so very grateful.  It's interesting to see how your body works because the more you understand about yourself, the better you can work with your physical goals.  The healing that takes place in the body when you're regenerating is the most efficient way the body can do it.  We can always help the body out with stitches, bandages, and other things, but by itself, the body is pretty darn good at patching itself up.  We are very complex and how we do things are pretty awesome.

Now the important part that I'm going to talk about right now is how the body heals itself and how I apply it to my running.  It's important to me to be able to understand how the body works because of its efficiency.  The body is very capable of doing so much and works in the best possible way.  So how can I apply this knowledge to running?  Simple.  Take the physical and make it psychological.  The most important thing the runner has to have in being able to do well in races is confidence.  A runner without confidence... without guts... can only go so far.  It's up to those that push themselves forward to get to their goals.  Sometimes, with injury or defeat, a bad race or whatnot, we lose that confidence and we backtrack.  So how can we build our confidence back up?

Think of the 4 steps of Skin Regeneration and apply them directly to your confidence building.  First, you have to stop.  Just stop.  Think about what led you to where you are and think about what you're going to do about it.  Know where you are will allow you to get yourself to where you want to be.  Second, you have to rebuild all the broken confidences by adding new things to be confident about.  Things that aren't easily broken.  Since you've stopped and are ready to move forward get rid of all the extra stuff that gets in the way and eats at you.  Removing the doubt will definitely improve your regeneration because keeping it inside is just keeping junk.  Thirdly, you need to begin rebuilding what you need to be confident in.  Your successes, your training foundation... yourself.  Finally, at this time, you're ready to go out again, ready to take on the world after rebuilding yourself up in the most efficient way possible, getting rid of everything you didn't need in the first place, focusing on the things you're made of... because you aren't confident in what you've done.  You're confident in YOU.