Fantasy Running: Nostalgia and Reality

As we become more accomplished runners, we build up a repertoire of experiences.  Typically, when we look back on our experiences and the training runs that got us to our new peak levels, it can become easy to gloss things over; sugar coat our past runs so that we remember them as painless and relatively easy paths to success.  Perhaps this is because we simply become excited, so high from what we've done that we forget the pain, sweat and tears that we had to endure to achieve our goals.


I was out for a run about 6 weeks after my most recent marathon, and a thought came to me: why is it so hard right now to run such a mediocre pace?  A few answers jumped out at me immediately, and I am quite thankful that I did not have to search the cosmos for those answers.


The first of these was quite evident.  The faster you become, the harder you have to work at becoming faster (let alone to maintain what you already have).  This is an absolute for all things when one is attempting to raise the bar and up the standards.  To become more satisfied, you must elevate the level of your challenges.


Second, and perhaps most importantly, don't get lost in the idea that your past training sessions were part of some blissful fantasy.  Your past runs were always a challenge, and that is a fact.  We tend to forget the pain, or perhaps the pain feels somehow numbed in our minds.  It is important that you don't misunderstand me here, as our hardest and biggest runs do tend to be the most fantastic and inspiring.


During your difficult runs, especially if you are feeling at your lowest point, you may have this idea in your head: "I don't remember my training runs feeling this tough before."  Perhaps that is because you are in the moment, the pain is present and real, and you may be recalling all of your training and racing in the past only as magical moments.  No doubt those past runs were imbued with magic.  But that magic is always impregnated with pain.  Love the pain!  This was a constant reminder I would give my teammates when I captained my high-school X-C team.  It is still a constant reminder of the day.  Your memory can become sugar coated and you may recall only the best moments of your training.  This is an easy trap to fall into.  It is vital to recall every aspect, especially the pain (physical and mental) that you had to endure for your greater goals as a distance runner.


In conclusion to this abridged version of a very deep subject, I am simply saying DO NOT compare your comfort levels of your current runs with how you think you remember the comfort levels of your past runs.  It will always be hard, and you must remember that anything worth trying to achieve will test your character.  Remember to keep some separation between your running nostalgia and your running reality.  Your nostalgia is one of your best tools, but remember to use it wisely.


Always searching for the next Key Experience,

-J. Brewer