Posts tagged with YOGA

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Running Less and Cross-Training More

When I was younger runner, I came across a tip from a collegiate champion in a magazine, a tip called the 2 percent rule. In distance running, the champion asserted, 98 percent of all training should be running and the remaining sliver dedicated to cross-training.

Running shares a distinction with few other sports in the way performance is measured. In team sports like football or basketball, statistics don’t always best reflect an athlete’s contribution. Moreover, individual sports like gymnastics and diving leave scores in the hands of skilled, albeit subjective, judges. Running is different in that performance is more or less accurately represented with cold, hard numbers.

I suppose part of running’s attraction is the truth in times. Numbers permit comparison. A good race rewards you with a personal record. Certain numbers over a certain distance will achieve your goal. A finishing time gives your performance, and it’s hard for a clock to lie.

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Unlocking the Runner Within Without Taking a Step

The other day I was talking with a colleague about her boyfriend, an avid runner and former triathlete who has been having trouble accepting the limitations of his now older body.

He’s had surgery on both knees and has been advised by his doctor to slow down or he could do damage that would rule out running for good. Still, he chose to participate in a recent trail race, the kind that takes you through wooded areas with perilous ground underfoot. He fell. Reinjured a knee and knocked out two teeth. Will this be enough to stop him? Doubtful.

How does a runner age gracefully? Perhaps “age” is the wrong word. Maybe it’s more like “evolve.”

I understand the need to run. I’ve gone out in heat waves, blizzards, with a bad cold, pregnant in the driving rain because I wanted that sense of accomplishment and calm that comes with completing my miles. Permission to exhale and say, “Ah, I’ve run, now the day can begin.”

What would happen if running were taken away from me? If I could no longer do what I’ve come to depend on for physical fitness, mental clarity as well as a sense of identity and community? What would happen if I put in fewer miles? Would I become depressed? Get fat? Be somehow less an athlete? Be officially old?

I suspect a lot of runners don’t want to find out the answers to these questions and that’s what keeps them from scaling back despite being told they could shatter bones, end up on an operating table or even be sidelined for good. Read more…