It's been awhile since I've wanted to do a review of Angie Abdou's The Bone Cage. I read it a few years ago while I was training for a marathon, and it really resonated with me.
The book is about the story of two young athletes, both of whom have qualified for the Olympics - one in swimming, the other in wrestling. They have spent their whole live training for this moment, and it is about to arrive.
Both spend literally all their time sleeping, eating, training, sleeping, eating, training....Their whole worlds revolve around their sport and their goal of winning an Olympic medal. He is still in university, but she has graduated and is working at the fitness centre to try and make enough money to keep training. And if it doesn't work out, neither one really has a career option other than what they have directed all of their life's energy towards since they were little.
Once they qualify for the Olympics, they become so isolated from those around them - their competitors are now a threat, their families don't really understand how important and isolating it all is - that the two athletes turn to each other and become friends.
As one reviewer put it, The Bone Cage is about the struggle of self actualization while being trapped within the physical body and trying to push it as far as it will go.
For me, it's also about the lengths to which professional athletes have to commit their lives to a sport to even make it to the Olympics, let alone win a medal. There's a sort of pathos about this story that made me feel that I was glad I had something more than my sport. As a teenager, I used to bemoan the fact that my parents hadn't put me into competitive gymnastics earlier. I had the strength and the determination, but I had started too late and all of the girls my age were years ahead of me.
But reading this book, I realized that I'm happy that I haven't committed my entire life to a single sport. Because if something happens to you while training, that could be it. And then you have to refocus your entire life on something else.
Every so often, I'd run into girls in my gym club who would tell me they used to compete with such and such girl who was now competing at the national level - the only thing is, the first girl had gotten injured and lost months' worth of training, while the second had been lucky enough not to get injured...yet...
Reading this book also helped me put my running training into perspective. So often, because marathon or half-marathon training require us to put so many hours into our training, the running does begin to consume our lives. Till all we do is eat, sleep, breathe running...
But I'm not a professional athlete, and my only competition on race day is myself. So it's ok to sometimes take a step back from things and live a little outside of the running. And that balance can only serve to make us happier, healthier individuals.
Long story short The Bone Cage is well worth the read, and I recommend it to anyone, whether you're training for your first 5k race or marathon. It'll give you some much-needed perspective.
~ HRG
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
T-minus 19 days, and counting: cross-training on a wintry day
It snowed again today...A common theme around these parts lately (it's snowed four times in eight days, nevermind rain and snowmelt and everything in between). Given my fall from this Sunday, I thought I'd avoid the risk and stay inside tonight.
That's the thing about winter running - the weather can be so unpredictable that it can scuttle your plans. Which means that a mid-winter half marathon will probably not see you posting a PB on race day.
So tonight, I headed to the gym for a Body Pump class, for some good ol' cross-training. It's been a few weeks since my last BP class, so I didn't quite know what weights to put on the bar, but for the most part my leg core, arm core and back core felt strong.
My core, however, felt a little weak. I could especially tell when I was doing squats - my back started to hurt, which was a good reminder to suck in my abs as we worked.
I find it really takes effort and planning to find a good balance between running and cross-training, but it's that cross-training that's so important to building and maintaining strength.
We once had a speaker come in to one of the clinics I attended, who used to be the trainer for the national triathlete team. He said that they immediately saw an improvement in their athletes' performance as soon as they started building strength training into their regular training. So, for example, he suggested running to the park as part of your regular training run, then using the bars and a strength band there to do some core strength exercises, and running back.
I can tell you that the year that I got married, I tried something similar, and I was the fastest, strongest and fittest that I have ever been in my running career (if you can call it that). I would run 1.5kms to the gym, do 30 minutes of strength training, and then run 7.5 kms home. But the problem was that I'd arrive home at around 8:30 or 9 and have missed dinner (not to mention spending time with my fiance).
These days, my priorities are different. I would rather spend an hour at the gym or running, then the rest of the evening at home. Which means that most days I'm doing one run or cross-training class (whether yoga, Body Pump or Zumba), instead of both.
The trick, again, is to find that balance and to realize that I'm not a professional athlete, but I can still live a healthy and active life without expecting myself to hit PBs on every race.
Thus endeth my blog post for day T-minus 19 until race day!
_ HRG
That's the thing about winter running - the weather can be so unpredictable that it can scuttle your plans. Which means that a mid-winter half marathon will probably not see you posting a PB on race day.
So tonight, I headed to the gym for a Body Pump class, for some good ol' cross-training. It's been a few weeks since my last BP class, so I didn't quite know what weights to put on the bar, but for the most part my leg core, arm core and back core felt strong.
My core, however, felt a little weak. I could especially tell when I was doing squats - my back started to hurt, which was a good reminder to suck in my abs as we worked.
I find it really takes effort and planning to find a good balance between running and cross-training, but it's that cross-training that's so important to building and maintaining strength.
We once had a speaker come in to one of the clinics I attended, who used to be the trainer for the national triathlete team. He said that they immediately saw an improvement in their athletes' performance as soon as they started building strength training into their regular training. So, for example, he suggested running to the park as part of your regular training run, then using the bars and a strength band there to do some core strength exercises, and running back.
I can tell you that the year that I got married, I tried something similar, and I was the fastest, strongest and fittest that I have ever been in my running career (if you can call it that). I would run 1.5kms to the gym, do 30 minutes of strength training, and then run 7.5 kms home. But the problem was that I'd arrive home at around 8:30 or 9 and have missed dinner (not to mention spending time with my fiance).
These days, my priorities are different. I would rather spend an hour at the gym or running, then the rest of the evening at home. Which means that most days I'm doing one run or cross-training class (whether yoga, Body Pump or Zumba), instead of both.
The trick, again, is to find that balance and to realize that I'm not a professional athlete, but I can still live a healthy and active life without expecting myself to hit PBs on every race.
Thus endeth my blog post for day T-minus 19 until race day!
_ HRG
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Week 12 of 18: mini vacay with hubby, tough 6k & 16k LSD...and waffles!
I'll get right down to it: I'm waffling about whether to sign up for the Valley Harvest half. Last week was...tough. Apart from the fact that a minor wrench was thrown into my training when hubby and I went away for a mini vacay (which was lovely), my legs felt tired, and I just felt burnt out overall.
Add to that the fact that I started going over my training times from my last half marathon, and realizing that I was running on average 30 seconds to a minute slower per kilometre now than I was a year ago, and you could say last week was a challenge -- mentally, and physically.
I know, it's only been just over two months since my surgery, and I haven't been training or eating like I used to (even though I have been watching what I eat a little more and going to the gym more). But this phase of getting back into shape is just feeling like a long slow haul. And there's a little niggling doubt inside of me wondering whether jumping into half marathon training in week eight of an 18-week program, just six weeks after surgery, was entirely the right way to get back into it.
Then I realize just what a challenge it must be to get into shape if you've never been active before, and I've got to give mad props to all the people who decide to get active for the first time ever. Let's face it: being healthy and active takes time, and determination.
Last week's training kind of looked like this:
- Monday: 16k LSD...a toughie, but I did it!
- Tuesday: Zumba + abs, biceps & triceps
- Wednesday: Zumba + abs, legs & back
- Thursday: mini vacationing with hubby (walking on the beach, ping pong & swimming)
- Friday: mini vacationing with hubby
- Saturday: 6k steady run...also a toughie
- Sunday: 15.5k LSD...a little better than last time (this time, I remembered to bring my GU, Shot Bloks and water/Gatorade, which made a difference, though it was super humid and icky due to Hurricane Irene being on her way)
On Sunday, I stopped by the Running Room to pick up some gels, and Bruce was there. He asked me how I'd been doing, and whether I'd been taking it easy. I admitted that I'd been trying to get back into it slowly, but finding it tough.
Even though he was busy with other customers, I really appreciated how Bruce took the time to ask me how I was doing, then think and give me some honest advice.
I asked him what he thought about me jumping into the half marathon program almost halfway in, and he thought about it some more. His suggestion: maybe to only do a 10k race in the fall, then train for a winter or spring half, and a fall full.
"I'm no psychologist," he said, "But I know that if you're not feeling well about it mentally, you just won't feel well overall," he said. Basically, suggesting that the more I stressed out about these runs, the harder they would feel.
And he was right - Saturday's 6k steady run did feel like agony. I didn't want to do it, and I didn't believe I could do it. By km 4 or 5, I realized that my entire body was stressed and tense, which only made the experience more distressing.
After meeting Bruce, I had planned to meet a friend for a quick interview that I thought would only take 30 minutes, then head out for my 16k. But the interview ended up taking two hours. By the time I stepped outside onto Spring Garden Road, it was hot and sticky outside - Irene was on her way. I called Steve to tell him I was headed home and was going to skip the run.
"You know what you need to do," he said.
Goshdarnit does he ever know his reverse psychology, because no sooner did I hang up the phone than I felt guilty and thought "I'll show him."...and headed out for my 16k LSD.
I'll be honest - it wasn't easy. About 2k in, just after my first walk break, I actually unvelcroed my water belt, turned around, and started walking back to the gym. But then I thought, "You know what, let's just run 10 minutes, and then another 10 minutes, and see how far I get." At the worst, I knew I could call a taxi if I ended up exhausted, or if Irene decided to start blowing through.
In the end, I made it back to the gym, 15.5kms later. Once again, it wasn't easy, and my average pace was about 20-30 seconds slower than usual. But I did it, drawing on all of my previous marathon mental training, putting my head down, and trying to be in the minute. It's easy to get discouraged when you think about the entire distance that needs to be run. But if you just focus on putting one foot in front of the other, running till the end of the block, the end of the 10 minute interval, the next walk break, then you'll be amazed at how far you can get.
The run complete, I drove home, exhausted and sweaty. Steve was surprised that I'd completed the run. He admitted he hadn't thought think I was going to do it, because I sounded like I didn't want to. I admitted that I just felt so slow and sluggish lately, and he hugged me to him. "Who cares about your speed?" he said, pointing out that I was training almost manically before.
Maybe he had a point. Maybe the point here is just that I'm getting healthy again, and there's something to be said for balance. Who cares if I don't run the next half in sub two hours? In the end, it'll have been the journey that matters, and the difference it makes on my overall health.
I'm still waffling over whether to sign up for the Valley Harvest half, but I still have five weeks to make up my mind. In the meantime, I'll keep building up my strength and my distances, gradually, and see where that takes me.
~ HRG
Add to that the fact that I started going over my training times from my last half marathon, and realizing that I was running on average 30 seconds to a minute slower per kilometre now than I was a year ago, and you could say last week was a challenge -- mentally, and physically.
I know, it's only been just over two months since my surgery, and I haven't been training or eating like I used to (even though I have been watching what I eat a little more and going to the gym more). But this phase of getting back into shape is just feeling like a long slow haul. And there's a little niggling doubt inside of me wondering whether jumping into half marathon training in week eight of an 18-week program, just six weeks after surgery, was entirely the right way to get back into it.
Then I realize just what a challenge it must be to get into shape if you've never been active before, and I've got to give mad props to all the people who decide to get active for the first time ever. Let's face it: being healthy and active takes time, and determination.
Last week's training kind of looked like this:
- Monday: 16k LSD...a toughie, but I did it!
- Tuesday: Zumba + abs, biceps & triceps
- Wednesday: Zumba + abs, legs & back
- Thursday: mini vacationing with hubby (walking on the beach, ping pong & swimming)
- Friday: mini vacationing with hubby
- Saturday: 6k steady run...also a toughie
- Sunday: 15.5k LSD...a little better than last time (this time, I remembered to bring my GU, Shot Bloks and water/Gatorade, which made a difference, though it was super humid and icky due to Hurricane Irene being on her way)
On Sunday, I stopped by the Running Room to pick up some gels, and Bruce was there. He asked me how I'd been doing, and whether I'd been taking it easy. I admitted that I'd been trying to get back into it slowly, but finding it tough.
Even though he was busy with other customers, I really appreciated how Bruce took the time to ask me how I was doing, then think and give me some honest advice.
I asked him what he thought about me jumping into the half marathon program almost halfway in, and he thought about it some more. His suggestion: maybe to only do a 10k race in the fall, then train for a winter or spring half, and a fall full.
"I'm no psychologist," he said, "But I know that if you're not feeling well about it mentally, you just won't feel well overall," he said. Basically, suggesting that the more I stressed out about these runs, the harder they would feel.
And he was right - Saturday's 6k steady run did feel like agony. I didn't want to do it, and I didn't believe I could do it. By km 4 or 5, I realized that my entire body was stressed and tense, which only made the experience more distressing.
After meeting Bruce, I had planned to meet a friend for a quick interview that I thought would only take 30 minutes, then head out for my 16k. But the interview ended up taking two hours. By the time I stepped outside onto Spring Garden Road, it was hot and sticky outside - Irene was on her way. I called Steve to tell him I was headed home and was going to skip the run.
"You know what you need to do," he said.
Goshdarnit does he ever know his reverse psychology, because no sooner did I hang up the phone than I felt guilty and thought "I'll show him."...and headed out for my 16k LSD.
I'll be honest - it wasn't easy. About 2k in, just after my first walk break, I actually unvelcroed my water belt, turned around, and started walking back to the gym. But then I thought, "You know what, let's just run 10 minutes, and then another 10 minutes, and see how far I get." At the worst, I knew I could call a taxi if I ended up exhausted, or if Irene decided to start blowing through.
In the end, I made it back to the gym, 15.5kms later. Once again, it wasn't easy, and my average pace was about 20-30 seconds slower than usual. But I did it, drawing on all of my previous marathon mental training, putting my head down, and trying to be in the minute. It's easy to get discouraged when you think about the entire distance that needs to be run. But if you just focus on putting one foot in front of the other, running till the end of the block, the end of the 10 minute interval, the next walk break, then you'll be amazed at how far you can get.
The run complete, I drove home, exhausted and sweaty. Steve was surprised that I'd completed the run. He admitted he hadn't thought think I was going to do it, because I sounded like I didn't want to. I admitted that I just felt so slow and sluggish lately, and he hugged me to him. "Who cares about your speed?" he said, pointing out that I was training almost manically before.
Maybe he had a point. Maybe the point here is just that I'm getting healthy again, and there's something to be said for balance. Who cares if I don't run the next half in sub two hours? In the end, it'll have been the journey that matters, and the difference it makes on my overall health.
I'm still waffling over whether to sign up for the Valley Harvest half, but I still have five weeks to make up my mind. In the meantime, I'll keep building up my strength and my distances, gradually, and see where that takes me.
~ HRG
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Learning to be a snail...for a while...
So I was going to call this post "Learning to be a couch potatoe." But then I thought, well hang on -- I don't plan on being a couch potatoe for ever. Sure, much of my time lately has been spent on the couch or in bed, watching TV or reading a book. But I don't plan on making a permanent groove in this chair and growing sprouts.
Instead, I'll learn to be a snail. If only for a while. Because you know that old joke:
What did the snail say to the other snail as it drove by?
Look at that S-car go!
The thing about snails is, as opposed to potatoes, they may be slow but eventually they get to where they want to go, with dogged determination.
As a fairly active person, working out and running up to five or six times a week (if not more), it's been frustrating having to slow down since my operation. The doctor had recommended that I take it easy for six weeks, but being the active type-A woman that I am, I told myself that wouldn't apply to me.
Only days after my surgery, I took to going out one or two times a day, taking my mom (who's been here on a visit to help me with my recovery) around Halifax to make sure she wasn't bored. We went to Chez Tess for brunch one day (I could only eat half of my crepes Benny...I seem to have a teeny appetite these days), and walked up and down Spring Garden Road browsing through stores. Another day we bought geraniums for the front porch, and bird seed for the feeder on the back porch.
Sure, my stomach usually felt like it had been split open after only an hour of being out and about, and I couldn't walk further than a block, but I told myself that it was important to keep active if I ever want to run another race.
Until two days ago, when I started feeling absolutely drained with only the slightest effort.
"You've been doing too much," my mom and hubby admonished. "You have to slow down and let your body start to heal."
I've been taking it a lot slower since then, but even today, after folding laundry (which hubby had washed for me, thankfully) and then putting it away, I was finished for the day. In fact I've only just now woken from an afternoon nap. I've been napping lots lately.
I don't mean this to be a woe-is-me post, by any means. Instead, I hope it's a reminder to cherish your health and active lifestyle. Because although being a couch potatoe (sorry, snail) is a great way to catch up on reality TV and morning talk shows, it doesn't give you an iota of the sense of accomplishment and pride you get when you just came back from that amazing run or finished a really tough Body Pump class, let alone crossing the finish line after months of training. And there's definitely no rush of adrenaline surging through your body, even if you are surfing the TV waves.
Then again, there is something to be said for balance. I have caught up on a lot of my reading, which I hope I can maintain once I'm back on the road again.
I may feel tired now, but I know that's just my body healing. With every day, I'll start getting stronger and stronger. Pretty soon I'll be calling out to my hubby that I'm lacing on my shoes and heading out for a run.
I can't wait!
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