My coach does a really good job encouraging rest. She asks me to choose rest if my body is sick or otherwise needing it. And on Wednesday when the cough started surfacing it felt both “right” and completely awful to skip my strength session that day. I wrote about it in my training log, and as usual, Jenny said:
“Thank you! Please consider resting on Friday too if you have any cold symptoms…”
Ugh.
My coach’s permission to rest all at once feels validating and demoralizing.
Validating: Yes, she sees me. This cough or cold or sickness is real and we should not mess around with my health. Rest.
Demoralizing: If I skip out on strength training or don’t do the key workout of the week, how will I get stronger and faster? I’m losing ground!
I hate this more than I can express, but so much of ultra running is in the mind. Both during training and in the racing, it’s essential to make sound decisions:
Was that an ankle roll that my body took in stride or did I damage the tissues; am I making this worse by running on it?
Before I head out for the next loop, do I have all of the water and nutrition I need?
Bad decisions, or worse, ignoring problems that turn into bigger problems (neglecting decisions) have the potential to derail an entire training block. It seems so elementary, but during the moment of decision it almost never is.
A process from the Bandera 100K I ran last January to illustrate this principle:
My ankle bones are rubbing on the tops of my shoes every time I go downhill. By 40 miles, they feel raw and tender. What should I do?
From my perspective now? Stop. Take off my shoes and socks, tape the irritated area, put on new socks (maybe new shoes?) and try again.
In the moment? I don’t know. I don’t want to stop, because I have goals and I MUST MAKE FORWARD PROGRESS. Never mind that I’m now walking the majority of downhills and rocky flats due to this discomfort—I simply can’t stop, and I’m certainly not thinking straight.
It’s not hard to see from this perspective that I could potentially have made faster forward progress if I’d stopped and worked toward making my ankles more comfortable.
A lesson was learned. A sound mind, and a good decision making process is essential to maximum forward trajectory.
But this week?
I don’t want to stop and wait for my cough to resolve because I’m afraid of losing fitness ground.
To take a lesson from Bandera, I know that the long view is the most productive view. I will make up more ground by giving my body what she is asking for— I need to let her heal completely before pushing her hard again.
I try hard to subscribe to the principle that if something unexpected and unwanted happens, it may not IN THE LONG RUN actually run counter to my goals. What if that hip issue I took a week off to resolve was keeping me from a fatal running accident that week? What if my body was fighting off a bug and I would have contracted a weeks-long illness if I hadn’t had extra rest that week? Or what if the minor hip issue became a chronic hip issue? (Thank you, hip, for letting me know I needed rest.)
I want to trust the process. But in the moment it is simply not natural.
(Queue the angsty internal dialogue I recorded at the opening to this post.)
Today is one of those days that I spent waaaay too much time filling in the comments and notes cell of my training log. But I needed to process this concept. This unscheduled rest day thing is a hard pill to swallow. If this respiratory hiccup requires a no running day, can I do non-cardio strength training? Turn my losses into gains? What’s wise? What’s unwise? What can I do to maximize healing?
Standing in the shower after my slow strength set and chill hoop time with my youngest (I mostly watched her hoop while I drank my protein shake.) I could feel the mucus in my lungs and noticed the light cough that surfaced when my breath caught it just right. It’s in moments like this one that I grasp that what I just chose was best.
While spilling all of my fears and questions all over my training log and while sending off my son and husband for *their* Saturday trail run it’s hard not to second guess. Maybe a light run or hike would loosen up the yuck and get the blood pumping? Am I giving into a cold because I woke up tired and groggy— maybe my sore throat isn’t really a cold symptom? Maybe it’s just an allergy reaction? Am I being lazy? But when the morning is spent, and I’ve already chosen what I’ve chosen I’m able to lean into and trust my decisions. Yep, that’s a respiratory issue. I needed to give my lungs a chance to chill today. And that light strength set with my daughter got the blood pumping just enough. I can relax. I can trust.
I’m exercising my decision making muscles. I’m developing a sound mind.
I’m checking out my knee—which is looking fantastic!—and I am reminded that I can trust my body to heal. And I can trust my instincts to make wise choices for my body.
My sister just sent me a podcast that hosted Katie Arnold, and my biggest take-away was her approach to healing.
Is it any wonder that Wild Ideas Worth Living’s wisdom via Katie came to me over a weekend when I would most relate to it? My all-but-healed-knee had me nodding in agreement while at the same time my spasming lungs had me wincing in doubt. Katie’s reminders to find a healing mindset and take authority over my own narrative are timely. Reframing and leaning into the belief that I *am* healing myself helps me to stop and breathe: This short time of rest that I am taking to intentionally heal my lungs and restore my respiratory system are part of the training. This infection is not forever. I am not sabotaging my fitness. It’s okay to take a few days off running; I will likely be *better* for it. Katie didn’t shy away from saying that it was hard, though. I appreciate that too. This mindset does not happen by accident. It is a choice. I’m grateful for this nudge into this decision at this particular time in my running journey.
I’m grateful as well for my coach’s affirmation of these choices. That time spent frantically logging my anxieties and frustrations—and then finally my conclusions—was met with agreement:
“Ah what a great podcast to hear during this rest day!!
Oh and that is awesome about your knee!! Great work - maybe that little reminder for right now of how taking care of yourself works! ;) The lungs will follow!!!”
Thanks, Jenny. Another chance to breathe in belief, and rest in my sound decisions.