Contributed by Erin Daruszka
I want to start off by saying thank you. Thank you to our members without you we wouldn't have a club. Thank you to our volunteers that do all the heavy lifting. A special thanks to our super volunteers and Board members who put in countless hours making sure LMJS is the best club it can be. We couldn’t have this club without you and for that I am grateful. This quarter I wanted to focus on flexibility, not flexibility as in ‘can you touch your toes’ (some days yes, and some days no), but on being able to adapt to changes
thrown your way.
There are a lot of stressors in our daily lives and a lot of things that we have no control over. We do have a control over our attitude and our reactions to where life takes us. Some runners are better at that than others. One day you may run 10 miles and feel great and the next day 3 miles feels like you never ran a day in your life.It is okay. Maybe you are training too much? Or not enough? Maybe you didn’t drink enough water? Maybe you ate too much? Too little? Maybe you are coming down with a cold? All of these things factor into our running. These things are normal. How you react to it makes all the difference.
If you are not feeling well, it is okay to take an extra rest day. If you are injured take time off (otherwise a small problem can turn into a large problem). If it is 90 degrees out and the sun is directly overhead and you stop sweating, adjust the game plan immediately and walk. We can’t go beating ourselves up because we worked hard and missed the PR we were striving for because of some random curveball thrown in our path, take the experience and learn from it. You cannot change the past, so there is no point in dwelling on it. Move on to the next training run or race and put that energy there, where
it will be much better utilized. What did you learn from the previous experience? Some things I have learned – as much as I love coffee, I can’t have it before a run. I am a temperature snob. My body does not do well in heat or cold. A nice 60 degrees and overcast is great. Obviously, I don’t often get my ideal – in heat I need to slow down considerably and take walk breaks. In the cold, I need to go slow for a mile until my lungs have acclimated and then I can run my normal pace. I eat oatmeal daily, but cannot eat it before a run. Gatorade makes my stomach hurt (as do most gels). I, of course, only found this out through experience.
Whether you are seasoned runner or just starting out, know we all have good days and bad. The only thing you can do is learn to go with the flow and take every run as an opportunity to learn more about what you are capable of and what you can and cannot tolerate. I hope to see you around.
