The Importance of Emotion in Running

Gordon at Running to Disney has posted a wonderful observation about the emotional side of running. I encourage everyone who reads my blog to take a moment, read Gordon’s thoughts, and then think about how emotions affect you during a run. If you aren’t a runner, but know one (or several), please read this to begin to understand what we go through and how you can better understand the emotions we experience during training or a race. If you don’t run or know any runners, Gordon’s thoughts should still resonate with you for any activity that you do passionately.

It is the kind of thought process like Gordon’s that make me proud to be a runner connected to a community that understands, on one or several levels, what it is like to train hard for a race and the emotional impact the training, preparation, and the running of the race has on each runner. It is different for everyone, as Gordon notes, and should be addressed as a unique response for each runner that can not be pigeonholed into neat categories. Nor should it. How I deal with a good or bad training run is going to be completely different not only from any other runner, but also from day to day, depending on my emotional state at the beginning of the run, during it, and at the finish.

I have had many training runs start out great and go downhill due to any number of things that still ended up being good runs because I pushed through the emotions that were threatening to make the training ineffective.

I have forced myself out the door, not wanting to run (certainly not outside), being in a terrible mood and during the run found joy or bliss at the fact that I was outside, getting exercise, training for a race.

Our emotional states are much more important than many people, including runners, believe. Telling ourselves that our minds have to convince our bodies that we can finish, find the strength to complete that last sprint, get up the hill, make it to the finish line, whatever the case might be is important, but the emotional toll that effort takes is rarely discussed, rarely considered.

How each of us faces the emotions that surface from our running helps shape how we train and how we run. It’s okay to take about it and we need to have that discussion more. You can bond through the miles on the road, but you can also bond through the feelings you have while on that road. Personally, I’m open to that talk anytime with anyone willing to listen and share. Are you?

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!! I hope you all have a great holiday and enjoy the long weekend! I'm hoping to be able to run outside Saturday, but we'll see if the snowstorm here in Minnesota is too much for holiday snow removal. If the roads or sidewalks aren't clear, I'll try Sunday. I'll get my 12 miles in one way or another.

Only two more weeks before we head down to WDW!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

WDW Marathon Weekend interview pt 2on Running to Disney podcast Episode 42

Gordon at Running to Disney has posted part 2 of our interview about the WDW Marathon Weekend. It’s episode 42 and available at iTunes. Please let me know if you have any questions about the race weekend or anything else related to the race and I’ll be happy to help!

WDW Marathon Weekend possible meet-up

I think the second part of the interview with Gordon at Running to Disney may mention the possibility of having a Running To Disney listener meet-up. I’d like to see if any listeners are interested in meeting before the marathon on Sunday morning at some incredibly early time in the morning. If anyone’s interested, let me know and we’ll see what we can arrange.

WDW Marathon Weekend interview on Running to Disney podcast

My good friend Gordon at Running to Disney interviewed me last Friday about the WDW Marathon Weekend experience. The episode is out now and I’d recommend listening. If you are a first-time participant, we tried to give you a sense of what to expect as you prepare for the trip and the race. Apparently, we talked so long that Gordon had to split the interview into two parts. Please let me know if you have any questions about the race weekend or anything else related to the race and I’ll be happy to help!

Chatting with Disneyrunner

I had the opportunity to chat with Gordon this afternoon about the 2010 WDW Marathon weekend. He's hoping to post the episode soon. I'll post when it's ready.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Training Update – Early December

I see I have more followers - Thanks and Welcome!

Regular posting is apparently not my strong suit! I’m trying to find the time to write good posts, but sometimes a quick update will have to suffice. Since my last post, I’ve been continuing to train, although the time change at the beginning of November put the kibosh on my after work training runs, as it’s dark by the time I leave work. No worries, though, the elliptical downstairs has been a faithful training companion of mine for the last four years. I still get outside for the long runs I do on Saturdays, though. I have been fortunate that our Minnesota weather has been pretty good so far.

Yesterday I did my first 20 miler (the second is in 2 weeks) and it was the first day outside that it was flat out cold. When I started at about 5:45 am, it was 17 degrees with a wind chill of 11 degrees. At least there was no snow on the ground worth mentioning. It was a tough run, though, because I had layers on (as I should) that got soaked with sweat and froze, so I was carrying extra weight over the course of the run. I walked a lot more than usual, in part due to the cold, in part due to the fact that I went out a lot faster than I should have for a long run in that weather. I still finished in 4:11, but my pace was horrible compared to the last few months. I’ve learned to start out slower and be more careful with my pace for the run in 2 weeks, so we’ll see how that goes.